AS a way of warding off the endless agitation against the planned creation of states through the ongoing constitutional amendment, the National Assembly has decided to simplify the state creation process as highlighted in the 1999 Constitution, as the first step towards actualising state creation.
Sources close to the constitution amendment committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives, said that the lawmakers appeared to be working in unison on that front.
It was learnt that opposition to state creation was one of the issues that heightened the plot to truncate the exercise, leading to the decision by some forces opposed to the exercise to separate the Senate and the House of Representatives,
The Joint Committee on Constitution Review(JCCR), already inaugurated by the two chambers of the National Assembly under the leadership of Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, was truncated, leading to the setting up of separate constitution amendment committees by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Sources said that some leading members of the National Assembly had concluded arrangements to get new states created from their areas through the constitutional amendment exercise. While Ekweremadu is said to be eyeing the creation of a new state from the existing Enugu State, the Senate Leader, Senator Kola Folarin, is also said to be eyeing the creation of Ibadan State from the present Oyo State.
The Senate Committee on Constitution review and its House counterpart have been going about the exercise differently for some months now.
