At the resumed session yesterday, plans by the chairman, Justice Idris Legbo Kutigi and other principal officers to appoint the chairmen and Vice Chairmen was uncovered.

This came after delegates had last week agreed that chairmen and Vice Chairmen to 20 standing committees be appointed by delegates on the floor of the house, just as it was gathered that the issue was presented to the  50- member Committee set up last week to carry out the  assignment, but it did not scale through yesterday.

Few minutes into the deliberations, the deputy chairman of the conference, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi explained to the delegates the decision arrived at by the 50 ‘wise men’ who were selected last week by Justice Kutigi.

The 50 wise men had apparently reached an agreement to take over the appointment of the committee chairmen and their deputies.

Soon after Akinyemi  mandated one of the 50 ‘wise men’ to educate the house on the decision, delegates revolted and almost unanimously rejected the move.

In his counter motion,  Ibuchukwu Ezike, representing civil societies had argued that the 50 delegates who were selected to break the voting deadlock were not given the mandate to decide on who should be vested with the powers to appoint committee chairmen and the deputies, adding, “I Want to move a counter motion. The issue of the appointment of committee chairmen and their deputies was not one of the mandates given to the committee. By doing so, they are circumventing the powers of the delegates. The powers of the delegates to appoint chairmen and deputies be retained in the amendments.”

Not happy with the development, Prof. Akinyemi told  delegates of the need  to have it in their minds that the conference was put in place to proffer solutions to the problems of the country and not add to them, even as he warned that  in the future, the powers vested on delegates to appoint chairmen and their deputies will cause problems.