The development forced the chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, to adjourn the sitting abruptly, in order to avert a free-for-all. The plenary was thrown into chaos when the deputy chairman of the conference, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, called on the members of the Consensus Group to present their report and recommendation to the conference.
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Before he finished, some northern delegates shouted thunderously that the group was illegal, adding that the conference should proceed to balloting on the issues, in line with its rules of procedure.
Leader of the northern delegates in the group and former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie, fired the first salvo when he announced that the group was yet to reach an agreement on the contentious issues of revenue sharing and derivation principle.
Earlier, Dr Haruna Yerima from Borno State had stirred the hornest’s nest when he raised a point of order, under order nine of the conference rules of procedure, that the leadership had brought ballot boxes and that all recommendations and amendments should be voted through balloting and no longer voice vote.
He was also shouted down by the delegates who insisted that voice vote must be used in the adoption or rejection of recommendations and amendments, as it had been adopted for all the other 19 committee reports.
Yerima, was however, overruled by Justice Kutigi to continue with the deliberations.
A resolution of the Consensus Group, earlier submitted by Chief Raymond Dokpesi, the convener, and later read to the delegates by Chief Olu Falae, was also greeted with disapproval by some delegates.
Falae, however, defied the commotion to read the proposed amendment to the report of the committee on devolution of power, which, he said, was adopted by the parties at the meeting.
The amendment proposed by the group to the recommendation of the committee, as contained on page 39 was that: “The principle of derivation shall be constantly reflected in any approved formula as being not less than 18 per cent of the revenue accruing to the Federation Account directly from any natural resources.
“That not less than 50 per cent of the total derivation fund accruable to a mineral bearing state shall be due and payable to the host communities within the state where the resources are derived, in accordance with the production quota contributed by such communities.
“There shall be established a solid mineral development fund, which is currently three per cent of Federal Government Account referred to by the committee on page 40 of its report, it shall be increased to five per cent and will be applied to solid minerals development in the states.”
It is recalled that most of the Northern delegates insisted that the retention of the 13 per cent derivation payment to the oil producing states as a result of devastation and degradation of their environment occasioned by oil exploration as recommended by the committee on devolution of power should be adopted.
A northern delegate, Mohammed Junaid, who said he declined membership of the Consensus Group because it was an illegal grouping, insisted that the North stood by the 13 per cent derivation payment to the oil producing areas, adding that nothing should be added.
When the situation became uncontrollable, Kutigi ordered that the sitting be adjourned till Monday, to allow him consult with the 50 wise men and chairmen of all the 20 standing committees of the conference and to harmonise the issues in dispute.
Source: Tribune
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