National Conference delegates from the 19 northern states, under the auspices of the Northern Delegates Forum, NDF, have accused the confab leadership of harbouring a third term agenda for President Goodluck Jonathan and other present political office holders with the introduction of a purported new constitution for Nigeria.
Addressing a press conference at Gombe Jewel Hotel, Abuja on Tuesday evening, the leader of the northern delegates, and former Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Coomassie, said the NDF became suspicious of the confab leadership and its agenda when a June 30 front-page report of a national daily newspaper alleged that a member of the leadership of the conference had been lobbying members of the Northern Delegation to smuggle in a “new constitution” at the conference.
According to the Northern delegates, the draft Constitution, as prepared by the Justice Idris Kutigi led Secretariat, was a third term agenda designed primarily to allow for President Jonathan, other incumbent elective office holders whom they alleged as not qualified to contest or run for the election.
The northern delegates warned that if allowed to sail through, it had the potential of throwing the country into violence and anarchy.
The delegates who distanced themselves from the draft Constitution, however, noted that its appearance on Monday was a surprise to them as well as shocking and what they described as disappointment to them as northern delegates and Nigerians in general. they also said that as members of the National Conference and by constitution, it was not within the purview of delegates to draft a new constitution, adding that the document was illegal.
Coomasie said: “Given the observation under (iv) above, adopting a new Constitution is therefore calculated to enable incumbent elective office holders who are statute-barred from going for 3rd Term at both Federal and State levels, to run for offices again under the guise of running under a new Constitution. This will also have the consequential effect of depriving aspiring politicians from all political parties, as well as all Nigerians, of their rights to choices and preferences as enshrined in the constitution.
“If not arrested, the 3rd Term agenda, as in the past (2005), is capable of plunging Nigeria into another circle of political chaos with potential of violence and anarchy.
“We, Northern Delegates to the Conference, wish to assure patriotic Nigerians, and all lovers of democracy, that we are neither privy to, nor were we accessory to the emergence of the controversial “New Draft Constitution 2014″. We, therefore, unequivocally disown it, and emphatically disassociate ourselves from it. Accordingly, we will have nothing to do with it, for the following legal, moral and political reasons”.
Coomasie, a delegate representing the North West Zone was flanked at the briefing after the over two hours meeting of the Northern Delegates by Mohammed Umara Kumalia; Lt. Gen. Jerry Useni; Professor Iyorchia Ayu; Bashir Dalhatu; General Salihu Ibrahim; Amb. Ibrahim Gambari; Air Vice Marshal Mutari Mohammed; Emir of Askira, Alhaji Abdullahi Ibn Muhammed.