By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
Following President Goodluck Jonathan’s refusal to give assent to the amended constitution bill passed by the National Assembly, the Senate yesterday in a resolution mandated its leadership to write the President to demand the return of the original draft copy of the 2015 Constitution Alteration Bill.
The decision was reached during plenary, sequel to a motion moved by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
He explained that during a two-day retreat by the Constitution Review Committee to discuss the letter, it was discovered that Jonathan failed to accompany his letter vetoing the bill with the original copy of the bill sent to him for assent by the National Assembly.
Ekweremadu, who chairs the committee on the review of the 1999 Constitution, told the Senate that much progress could not be made by the committee due to the absence of the original draft bill.
President Jonathan had on Tuesday written a six-page letter to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives conveying his decision to withhold assent to the Bill and to return it to the National Assembly for necessary action.
Accordingly, the Deputy Senate President moved a motion calling on the President of the Senate, David Mark, to write to Jonathan, asking him to return the draft copy of the Bill to the Senate.
He said: “The President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has raised a number of objections with respect to the Fourth Alteration of our Constitution.
“That letter was appropriately referred to the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review. We slated to have a two-day retreat to consider the letter and advise the Senate appropriately.
“In the course of our sitting yesterday, we noticed that in the second to the last paragraph of that letter, the President said he was returning the Bill with the letter. Unfortunately, the Bill was not returned with the letter and we could not proceed because we would like to see the returned Bill.
“The committee has asked me to raise this point, to request the President of the Senate to ask the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to send back the original copy of the Bill sent to him, especially the signature page, to enable us to proceed with our work, especially since he had indicated in his own letter that the letter was accompanied by the Bill. So, we would like to have the Bill in its original form, especially the signature page.”
Mark noted that the motion did not require any debate since it was a matter of personal explanation.
He said: “It is a personal explanation; so, there will be no need to put it to debate. I think the important thing is that if the floor accepts that I send that letter then I will write a letter to Mr President to return the original copy of the Bill to us. “This was referred to your committee. So, if that is the decision of the committee, then we have little or no option on the floor here.
“There is a bit of urgency on this, so in writing that we should have it at the earliest possible time. We cannot put a time frame like within two days or three days; that would not be correct. The motion, as it is, is a correct motion without the time frame.”