Rep Gives Fresh Update On Creation Of New States

Parliament rejected 30 proposals; none meet constitutional Section 8.
New state creation requires a two-thirds majority vote.
Applicants urged to resubmit compliant proposals by March 5.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has confirmed that parliament has not taken a position on the proposals for the creation of new states.

In a statement issued Friday from his media office, Kalu explained that none of the 30 proposals currently submitted meet the constitutional requirements outlined in Section 8.

EDITOR’S PICKS

EKO HOT BLOG reports that according to Kalu, the Constitution mandates that for a new state to be created, there must be a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate, the House of Representatives, as well as in the state houses of assembly and local governments. “We are the people’s parliament. We are not taking any position on the issue of creation of states. We have heard a lot of people giving different narratives to the letter that was read,” he said.

He went on to clarify the process: “During the Ninth Assembly, we received more requests for state creation—some through private member bills and some via the memoranda we called for. In this Tenth Assembly, we have received 30 proposals, not 31. I think, on that list, they repeated Ibadan State twice. It is 30 that we have received.”

Kalu stressed that none of these proposals have met the requirements of Section 8 of the Constitution. “As we speak, none of these 30 proposals have met the requirements of Section 8, and that was why we decided to bring it to the notice of Nigerians that your application before us is ineffective. Therefore, you need to comply with Section 8 so that when we don’t consider the state creation request, you will know where it emanated from,” he stated.