Concern over ‘errors’ in Confab report

Fresh controversy is brewing over misrepresentation of delegates’ decisions in the report of the National Conference, Daily Trust learnt in Abuja at the weekend. The report, in three volumes, is scheduled to be presented to President Goodluck Jonathan at a ceremony on Thursday.Before the curtains were drawn on the confab last week, delegates had pointed […]

Fresh controversy is brewing over misrepresentation of delegates’ decisions in the report of the National Conference, Daily Trust learnt in Abuja at the weekend.
The report, in three volumes, is scheduled to be presented to President Goodluck Jonathan at a ceremony on Thursday.
Before the curtains were drawn on the confab last week, delegates had pointed out that the report misrepresented some of the resolutions taken at previous plenary sessions.
Some items were wrongly added, deleted or omitted in the proposed constitution amendments and other volumes of the report, they said.The secretariat was asked to rectify the identified problems, which were submitted in writing by some individuals and regional groups. A final report was to be ready on Friday, ahead of this week’s presentation to the president.
But Daily Trust learnt that there is concern among delegates that some of the corrections might not have been made, and that this would question the credibility of the report.
Among the misrepresentations pointed out by Northern delegates in a memo to the confab secretariat is that in the draft constitution amendments, Section 315 of the 1999 Constitution was deleted even though the actual decision taken at plenary was for the section to remain.
That section listed four laws that cannot be amended unless they are expunged from the constitution. They are the Land Use Act, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Act, National Security Agencies Act and Public Complaints Commission Act.
The Northern Delegates Forum, in a memo signed by chairman Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie, said: “Conference recommendation on Wednesday 9th July was to retain the Land Use Act in the Constitution…. However, the document titled ‘Draft Constitution’ on page 267 proposes the deletion of Section 315 of the Constitution contrary to the resolution of the conference.
“This by implication puts the total laws of the country in complete jeopardy and specifically deletes the Security Agencies Act, NYSC Act, and Public Complaints Commission Act.”
The Northern delegates also said a whole list of recommendations that were included regarding political party regulation and electoral offences “were not resolutions of the conference as they are completely not captured in the votes and proceedings.”
Daily Trust further observes that in the draft constitution produced by the confab, the president has been relieved of powers to appoint the Inspector General of Police, contrary to the original resolution of the conference which retained the procedure spelt out in the 1999 Constitution.
The draft constitution provides that the IGP shall be appointed by the Police Council on the advice of the Police Service Commission.
Other issues raised by Northern delegates are the omission of recommendations regarding infrastructure for border towns, extended continental shelf project, and royalties.
Also, a suggestion on situating places of worship away from residential areas and highways, which was rejected at plenary, found its way into the main report of the confab. It says, “Building of worship places should be regulated in such a way that they are far away from residential areas and major highways.”
‘No cause for alarm’
Some delegates who spoke to Daily Trust yesterday said they won’t accept the final report if the corrections are not reflected.
But it is not clear what these delegates would do if the report is doctored, because the last plenary session on Thursday mandated the conference secretariat to make the corrections in the final report and present it to Jonathan without bringing back to delegates for consideration.
“We are not going to accept a doctored report. All corrections and observations we made must be properly captured. The report must contain only resolutions adopted by the plenary and nothing else,” Dr Haruna Yerima, a delegate from Borno State, told Daily Trust yesterday.
“There are lots of resolutions that were not captured properly in the report. The plenary had mandated the conference secretariat to capture these observations and corrections before the final report is submitted to the President Jonathan.
“We are very vigilant. We have entrusted the leadership of the conference with the task of producing the final report. So, we are waiting to see the final report.”
Alhaji Ibrahim Coomassie also told Daily Trust that unless the corrections were made, that final report would be rejected.
Kutigi had said on Thursday that the final report would be ready the next day. But it was not clear yesterday whether the secretariat had produced a clean copy that took into account all the corrections and observations suggested.
When contacted, spokesman for the National Conference secretariat, Mr Akpandem James, said: “There is no cause for alarm. This is because the delegates at plenary had mandated the secretariat to capture all the corrections on the final report.”