Arewa-online

Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Head of State Mohammed Buhari last night led Governors Bola Tinubu, Orji Kalu, Boni Haruna and Abdulkadir Kure of Lagos, Abia, Adamawa and Niger States respectively, as well as some former governors and political leaders, to meet with members of the National Assembly opposed to the third term bid of President Olusegun Obasanjo and the governors.

Others at the meeting were former Inspectors General of Police M. D. Yusuf and Gambo Jimeta, former PDP Chairman Audu Ogbeh, former governors Lam Adesina, Niyi Adebayo, Segun Osoba, and Lawal Kaita.

Others include Alhaji Mogaji Dambatta, Senators Tokunbo Afikuyomi, Uche Chukwumerije, Dam Sadan, Aniette Okon, Ben Obi, Sule Gandi, Kanti Bello, and former Speaker of House of Representatives Umar Ghali Na'Abba, former Internal Affairs Minister Prof. Iyorchia Ayu and Pro. Ben Nwabueze, former Secretary General of Ohanaeze were also in attendance.

The meeting which started at about 10.30pm at the Niger State Governor's Lodge, Asokoro, had been scheduled for 9pm at the Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers but was disrupted by a contingent of policemen and State Security Service (SSS) operatives led by FCT Commissioner of Police Lawrence Alobi.

The lawmakers were taken by surprise by the presence of the armed security agents who had taken up position within the hotel, hours before their arrival.

The securitymen barricaded the Ladi Kwali Hall of the hotel where the meeting was scheduled to hold and prevented the lawmakers from gaining access into the hall.

The arrival of former Head of State, Gen. Mohammadu Buhari, even failed to appeal to the securitymen who politely turned him back telling him that they were under instructions from above not to allow the meeting hold.

Speaking with journalists later, Police Commissioner Alobi said the lawmakers or anybody for that matter did not have a right to meet in such public place as Sheraton Hotel without obtaining police permission at least 42 hours before such meeting.

He said his men were simply there to maintain law and order and that such a meeting, if allowed to proceed without police permission, was capable of breaching the peace.

However, one of the anti-third term lawmakers, Dr. Usman Bugaje described the police action as "very irresponsible and the height of executive tyranny."

He maintained that as citizens of Nigeria, they have a right to freedom of association as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.

He said the police action, rather than break their spirit, has strengthened their resolve to oppose all undemocratic tendencies including the third term agenda.

He described the police siege as a sign that the Federal Government has became jittery of the opposition and will stop at nothing to destroy them.

Also in attendance were about 20 senators and about 150 members of the House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly Joint Committee on the 1999 Constitution Review (JCCR) will today adopt the report of its Port Harcourt retreat having completed its review yesterday.

The committee, however, failed to deliberate on the draft bill prepared by its secretariat and circulated to members at yesterday meeting on the grounds that it will be akin to "putting the cart before the horse" because the corrections exerted on the Port Harcourt retreat report had not been corrected.

Also yesterday, senators and members of the House of Representatives were inundated with lobby letters from both the pro and anti-3rd term groups urging the lawmakers to support their respective positions.

The JCCR members, who met for about three hours at the Senate Hearing Room, were said to have discovered "errors" that were not in line with discussions at the Port Harcourt retreat.

A member of the committee, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma (PDP, Akwa Ibom) was said to have challenged the position held in the committee report that the adoption of three terms of four years for the president and governors was canvassed by all Nigerians.

Udoma was said to have countered that the view and recommendation belong to the JCCR even as Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora was said to have argued that the recommendation on autonomous local government structure was not canvassed at any of the public hearings adding that it was the opinion and recommendation of the committee.

THISDAY gathered that the positions of Udoma and Mamora were subjected to the votes of the floor and carried in favour of the two senators.

Majority of members of the committee were said to have resolved that these corrections be inserted into the final report and brought back to members today in order for the committee to adopt the report.

"It is after this that the issue of draft bill that would be submitted to the two chambers can come up. The draft bill which they brought to us was not considered at all", a source said.

But a group, National Coalition for Continuity of Reforms Agenda (NCCRA), in circulating a one-page unsigned letter to lawmakers, called for extension of tenure for President Olusegun Obasanjo "for another four years."

The letter, which was placed in a folder that bears the picture of Obasanjo and emblazoned in Nigeria colours, read in part: "Distinguished Senators, this clarion call by us is a call to passionately consider the situation and make an historic decision for the prosperity of this country.

But the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) in a letter addressed to lawmakers and signed by its Secretary-General, Col. Hamid I. Ali, titled "Conquest of the North" warned that "if we do not hang together as Northerners, we shall surely be hanged as individuals."

Recalling a meeting held on the November 21, 2005 at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, the ACF stated that the Northern Members Forum "started this journey by affirming their opposition and resolved to do all within their power to stop the issue of extension of tenure and their irrevocable resolve to resist any constitutional amendment before the 2007 general elections."