Constitution review: Reps to release result of public sessions Jan 31

BY OKEY NDIRIBE

ABUJA—The House of Representatives will on January 31, 2013, present the final results of the public sessions it conducted on the review of the 1999 constitution last November.  The public sessions took place across the nation’s 360 federal constituencies.

This was disclosed in a statement yesterday by the Deputy Speaker of the House and Chairman , Ad-hoc Committee on Constitution Review, Emeka Ihedioha.

Ihedioha stated that the collated results will be presented at a public ceremony to be held at the House during which the voting pattern on all the issues listed in the template for voting will be unveiled as decided by Nigerians at each federal constituency.

According to him: “This ceremony is in keeping faith with the commitment made by the House of Representatives to make the process of the public sessions and indeed, the entire constitution amendment exercise transparent and accountable to the Nigerian people.

”As was the case when representatives of stakeholder organizations and civil society groups were invited to actively participate in the conduct of the peoples public sessions and the collation process thereafter, representatives of labour, trade unions, students, women, professional groups and other stakeholders have been invited to the ceremony on January 31.”

The Deputy Speaker further stated that organisations invited for the occasion include:  ”The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC), Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), National Youth Council, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and representatives of civil society organizations.”

Others invited to the ceremony which will be presided over by Speaker of the House of Representatives,  Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (CFR) are chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Governor Rotimi Amaechi  and Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures.