Senate to begin public hearing on Constitution review on May 26

The Senate says it plans to hold public hearing across the country on review of 1999 Constitution from May 26 to May 27.

Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege, Chairman, Senate Constitution Review Committee, said this in a letter addressed to Senate President Ahmed Lawan and read at plenary on Wednesday.

Omo-Agege said the public hearing would hold in two centres in each of the six geo political zones of the country.

He said the centres were -North-Central with two sub-centres in Jos and Minna.

Omo-Agege said the Jos centre was made up of Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue, with Sen. Abdullahi Adamu (APC-Nasarawa) as its Chairman, while the Minna centre has Niger, Kwara, Kogi and FCT and to be Chaired by Sen. Sabi Abdullahi (APC-Niger).

“The North-East has Bauchi centre, made up of Yobe and Borno and its Chairman is Sen. Abubakar Kyari (APC-Borno),while the second centre has Gombe, Taraba and Adamawa and has Sen. Goje Danjuma (APC- Gombe) as its Chairman.

“The North-West has Kaduna Centre made up of Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa and Katsina states and has Sen. Kabiru Gaya (APC-Kano) as Chairman, while Sokoto centre includes Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi states and has Sen. Adamu Alero (APC-Kebbi) as Chairman.

“The South-East zone, which has Owerri centre with Imo and Abia states has Sen. Orji-Uzor Kalu (APC-Abia) as Chairman, while Enugu centre has Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi states and has Sen. Ike Ekweremadu(PDP-Enugu)as its Chairman.

“The South-South zone has Asaba centre consisting of Delta, Edo and Bayelsa states and has Sen. James Manager (PDP-Delta) as its Chairman, while the Port Harcourt centre has Rivers, Akwa-Ibom and Cross-River and its Chairman is Sen. Berty Apiafi (PDP-Rivers).

“The South-West has Lagos centre made up of Lagos, Oyo and Ogun with Sen. Oluremi Tinubu (APC-Lagos) as its Chairman, while Akure centre has Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states and Sen. Ajayi Boroffice (APC-Ondo) is the Chairman,” he said.

Lawan urged Nigerians who had agitations worthy of presentation to present such at the public hearing, saying that it was an opportunity for Nigerians to visit centres nearest to them.

He said the National Assembly was open and do not have any pre-determined position on any of the issues to be addressed in the constitution review.