Northern delegates at the on-going national conference have further expressed their anger over the national conference’s proposed ‘draft constitution’ by petitioning the Chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi.

They demanded that the draft be withdrawn from circulation stating that its content shall not be debated at plenary

This was contained in an open letter the northern delegates sent to Kutigi in Abuja on Wednesday.

Titled, ‘New constitution, referendum and adoption of conference report: Issues of serious concern’, the letter was signed by the Chairman Northern Delegates Forum, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie and Co-Chairman, Gen. Jeremiah Useni (retd.).

The letter read in part, “We call upon the leadership of the Conference to discountenance and withdraw the Draft Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2014 and the accompanying Bills, which have been circulated.

“We urge the Conference leadership to table the Draft Conference Report which contains only the resolutions openly and officially sanctioned and adopted by delegates for validation and adoption as provided for under the National Conference Procedure Rules, 2014 and as envisaged in the Work Plan adopted.

“For the avoidance of doubt, we shall not be a party to the adoption of the report or any part thereof by voice vote. We urge the leadership of the Conference to be strictly guided by the Conference Procedure Rules, 2014.”

They said they were shocked when the Secretary of the Conference, Dr. Valerie Azinge, distributed some documents including one entitled ‘Report of the National Conference, 2014 DRAFT CONSTITUTION’, which they said was also accompanied by draft bills to promulgate into law the ‘CONSTITUTION OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, 2014′.

The northern delegates insisted that they were not a party or privy to any decision and did not participate in any processes or proceedings to draft a constitution or bill.

They said, “Moreover and to the best of our knowledge, we are unaware that the Conference has, whether at plenary or committee stages of its work, taken a decision to draw up a draft constitution, authorised or tasked any of its Committees, delegates or the Conference Secretariat to do so.”

They, therefore, described the origin of the documents as dubious and questionable.