Senate denies creating additional 20 States

The Nigeria Senate has denied reports in some media that its Committee on 1999 Constitutional Review headed by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege has proposed creation of additional 20 States.

The upper legislative Chambers said the report was nothing short of misrepresentation of the decision of the committee on the request for creation of more states.

The Senate aknowledged receiving memoranda from parts of Nigeria requesting for creation of States, but said, the purported recommendation was untrue, given the process involved in the States creation which has never been carried out.

In a statement issued on Sunday by the Senate’s spokesperson, Senator Ajibola Basiru, he referred to various section of the substantive 1999 Constitution as amended which must be fulfilled before a State could be created

“For ease of reference, Section 8 of the Constitution provides:
An Act of the National Assembly for the purpose of creating a new State shall only be passed if a request, supported by at least two-thirds majority of members (representing the area demanding the creation of the new State) in each of the following, namely, the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The statement added that the State House of Assembly and the Local Government Councils in the area would have to be received by the National Assembly, saying those processes haven’t been carries out yet.