Enahoro, others mobilise 50 groups for confab
By Clifford Ndujihe,
Senior Political Reporter
THE Chief Anthony Enahoro-led Nigerians United for Democracy (NUD) has dared the police to do their worst, insisting that nothing would stop it from convening a Sovereign National Conference (SNC).
The police last week threatened to deal with the leaders of the NUD if they went ahead to organise the conference without obtaining a po`lice permit in line with the Public Order Act.
Rising from a National Steering Committee meeting at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja on Wednesday, the group dismissed the police threat as inconsequential and raised a committee to facilitate a meeting of all pro-SNC groups in August.
In a chat with The Guardian, Chief Maxi Okwu, the Secretary of the NUD, disclosed that invitation letters are currently being despatched to 50 pro-SNC groups for the August meeting where modalities for the conference would be worked out.
He said the NUD was not worried by the police threat because "the police easily try to threaten Nigerians whenever they wish to exercise their fundamental rights. Such threats have been made in the past but Nigerians continued to express their rights."
Besides, Okwu noted that the Public Order Act is an issue before an Abuja High Court, in a case instituted by the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP).
The Wednesday meeting was chaired by Enahoro. The NUD scribe disclosed that an interim report of the SNC Roadmap Committee chaired by Alhaji Balarabe Musa was submitted and debated. The committee was given an additional two weeks to hold sittings in Lagos and Kaduna to collect memoranda and oral presentations.
His words: "The Interim report provoked a very lively debate at the meeting. Obviously some of the options did not go down well and some were very popular. The meeting resolved to give the committee a maximum of two weeks to go back and reflect the views of members and call for memos, take oral representations in Lagos and Kaduna if necessary and report back. We will then reconvene in three weeks time to consider their report."
He continued: "We resolved that the NUD is committed to hold one national conference. The meeting resolved to now move out aggressively and contact all pro-SNC groups, all those canvassing the idea, all those making arrangements to organise one with a view to harmonising and collating all arrangements under one roof. The contact committee is under the chairmanship of Professor Kimse Okoko of the Ijaw National Congress.
"Right now, letters are being dispatched to over 50 groups whom we have identified. We will also reach out to key national figures in the country to seek their support and advise where necessary. We hope that by August there will be a meeting of all pro-SNC groups in Nigeria to agree to work together and to work out the modalities. By then we would have got the report of the Balarabe committee, adopted it and present it to the large meeting as a working document."
At the meeting were Chiefs Olu Falae who led the Afenifere delegation, Chekwas Okorie (All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA), Sydney Dike (Igbo National Assembly), Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti (Citizens Forum), Bala Takaya, Olapade Agoro (National Action Council), and Senator Femi Okurounmu.
Also present were Edet Umo, Supo Shonibare, Achike Chude, Uzodinma Nwaogbe, Baba Omojola, Basil Onyia, Akintoye Brancho-Rhodes (Nigeria Advance Party), Alfred Ilenre, D.D. Abdulsalam, Dr. K. Awosika, Bamidele Aturu, and Mr.M Kpagane among others.
