Obasanjo’s aides lobbied for 3rd-term – Mamora

[MrVan]

By GBENGA ARIYIBI

ADO-EKITI—The former Senate Minority Leader, Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora, has joined the crop of  Nigerians calling for the  convocation of a  Sovereign National Conference, SNC,even as he admitted that some of the close allies of the former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, lobbied for his third-term ambition.

Mamora, also a former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, condemned some state governments for refusing to conduct local government elections.

The former lawmaker, spoke  in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday,  while delivering a lecture,  tagged, "Roles of Legislature in a Growing Democracy" in commemoration of the first anniversary of the fourth assembly in the state.

Mamora wants SNC now

Mamora said the calls for SNC was becoming more vociferous and deafening, even from unusual quarters, saying no time "is more appropriate than now for legislatures throughout the country to put machinery in motion for SNC as being demanded by all sections of Nigeria.

He said: "In doing so, there is need for an Act of the National Assembly to establish a Constituent Assembly that will fashion out the peoples' constitution. It is the product of such  an exercise that can firmly and appropriately begin with the words, 'We, the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria."

Mamora said the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Masari and Senate President, Senator Ken Nnamani, allowed members to contribute, where the agenda was shot down through thorough debate.

Earlier, Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Mr. Adewale Omirin, said the assembly remained the best in the country in terms of productivity, having passed 29 bills into law within 12 months.

Vanguard Nigeria

[MrVan]