AMINU WAZIRI TAMBUWAL
The Representatives at the conclusion of the voting on the Amended constitution Clause on Wednesday passed 85 new clauses to the 1999 Constitution.
According to the sections passed, the new immunity clause read that the President, Vice President, governors and their deputies vacate office if convicted of any criminal offence; the four year tenure of office was retained, Autonomy of Local government councils was endorsed; State Independent Electoral Commission was scraped and its responsibility transferred to INEC; Independent Candidacy was endorsed; Life pension for the President, Vice President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Speaker endorsed.
Furthermore, the transfer of health, housing, electricity and railways from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List was endorsed; the recommendations of the reports on the People’s Public Session conducted across the Federation on November 10, 2012, was also adopted.
Moreover, the House has resorted to manual system of voting after the lawmakers waited in vain for the emergency electronic voting platform to be restored.
A total of 339 members were accredited for the manual voting and each given a customized copy of the proposed alterations to the 1999 Constitution.
However, the experts’ take on the failure of the electronic voting platform revealed that the server in use lacked the capacity to accommodate 360 people voting simultaneously.