By Luka Binniyat
After several socio-cultural and political groupings in Nigeria have placed before the National Assembly demands for 42 new states, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, Tuesday, said it was not possible for the present National Assembly to create any new state before the expiration of its tenure in June 2011.

The speaker, who was represented by the Leader of the House of Representatives, Tunde Akogun (PDP/Edo), made this declaration, Tuesday, when he received a delegation of Benin-Ibibio-Itsekiri and Ilaje of Edo,  Akwa-Ibom, Delta and Ondo states.

The delegation came to reject the demand for the creation of Toru-Ibe State from the coastal area of Nigerian oil producing states, sponsored by Ijaw National Foundation.

“The truth is that we cannot create new states under this Assembly,” Akogun told his guests on behalf of the speaker.

“The time available to us now is too short; the only thing to do is to ware-house all the demands for new states for the next National Assembly to work on.

“We’re  going to have  it on record that you were here. And your demand would be looked into by the incoming members of the National Assembly,” he said.

The leader of the delegation, the  Osaque of Benin, Chief D.O Idabie, told the speaker’s representative that the proposed Toru-Ibe state was conceived by the Ijaw without consultations with other ethnic nationalities bounded in their proposal. They also accused the Ijaw of not making any effort at boundary delineation, saying it was a betrayal of the trust and support other tribes in the region had extended to the Ijaw.

He said they had already made their objection known to the Conference of Ethnic Nationalities of the Niger Delta, CENND, and Ijaw National Congress, INC.

The clarification by Akogun, yesterday, laid to rest the confusion as to whether the present government was capable of creating new states.

Going by the stringent provision of the Nigerian constitution, it is doubtful if any state can be created if the cumbersome provisions of the supreme law of the federation is not amended.

Curiously, during all the public hearings organised by the National Assembly for the amendment of the 1999 constitution, there was no person or group that came up with a proposal for the amendment of that section.