By Our Reporters

He spoke as protests and allegations of underhand manipulation trailed the second day of the public hearing organised by the Joint Committee on Constitution Review (JCRC) of the National Assembly.

Ibrahim Mantu, Deputy Senate President and chairnman of the JCRC, however, declared that his committee has shamed its critics and performed creditably contrary to earlier predictions that it would fail.

He said: “We are not in a dark room, we are in the open. The only agenda we have is an open one. If not we would have entered the dark room and come to tell the people what we have decided. No, everybody has the freedom to air his view, at the end of the day, the winners will be those who are more in number”.

Rimi made the call at the second day session of the North West zonal public hearing on constitution review that took place in Katsina on Thursday, warning that without unity, the North and the nation was doomed.

Rimi, a second republic governor of old Kano State and chieftain of the Advanced Congress of Democrats said there was no hope for the North and “genuine democrats” once efforts to amend the constitution succeeds.

Governor Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, also speaking at the Katsina venue, called for inclusion of the enabling law setting up the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) in the proposed amendment of the constitution.

Rimi’s advice did not deter proponents of the third term from speaking in favour of the agenda as they took center stage in the six zonal hearings and insisted that their wish for Obasanjo to extend his tenure was legitimate. They did amid protests.

Timothy Ochor, Majority leader of the Benue State House of Assembly kicked against the constitutionality of holding the North Central public hearing in Lafia Nassarawa State.

He did not get the opportunity to voice his anger as he met an empty hall with the business of the session hurriedly concluded.

Ochor, along with those who were at the venue of the hearing before 11am only met workers of the Ibrahim Abacha Youth Centre packing chairs and tidying up the place.

Participants who had been billed to present papers met an empty hall.

Senator Iyabode Anisulowo leader of the organizing team later said participants must not present their positions in person, reiterating that the committee would consider the presentations in the course of preparing its report.

In Abakaliki, Ebonyi State it was hard knocks for Professor Joe Irukwu, President of Ohanaeze who claimed Wednesday that over 50 million Igbo people were in support of Obasanjo extending his tenure beyond May 2007.

Chief Okey Muo Aroh, a chieftain of the Ohanaeze from Anambra state said: “ The position, regarding the three terms of four years each, as presented by Irukwu is his own prefabrication, not our position in Ohanaeze, it was an after thought”

He added: “ I used to respect him, he is one man I used to hold in high esteem. Yesterday, after his saying he had to align with positions of some of the South East Governors, I have not recovered from the shock, I was personally disappointed, he has no reason to alter the position of Ohanaeze, he owes nobody to sacrifice the reputation he built over years to a people that will not be good to him”.

Hyginus Nwanosike another Ohanaeze chieftain from Abia state noted: “But for Governors Orji Uzor Kalu and Chris Ngige of Abia and Anambra states, the Igbo nation would have been brought to total shame. I don’t know if Ohanaeze Ndigbo will survive this mess”.

Irukwu however found an ally in Charles Ugwu, President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) who backed an extension of the President’s tenure despite being booed repeatedly as he spoke at the Women Development Centre (WDC) venue of the event.

But the third term agenda generated more protests led by the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) in Osogbo, venue of the South West hearing, with 22 persons arrested still in police custody.

Senator Tokunbo Afikuyomi, in his reaction, described the arrest of the people as wicked, unlawful, and a rape of democracy and pledging to take the matter to the National Assembly for intervention.

He said: "It was the National Assembly that called for public hearing all over the six zones and those Houses of Assembly have become National Assembly. People come and watch our proceedings at the Assembly without being molested".

The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and those of Polytechnic [ASUP], National Conscience Party [NCP], religious groups as well as individuals further condemned the arrests in Osogbo.

Former Presidential candidate on the platform of AD/APP, Chief Olu Falae expressed further disappointment at the clamour for the extension of tenure of office of President Obasanjo saying the public sitting seems to have been stage-managed.

But the Deputy National Chairman [South], of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, [PDP], Olabode George faulted the claims of Falae saying they were not mobilised by anyone and said they came on their own.

Governors Jolly Nyame of Taraba State and Adamu Muazu of Bauchi who were absent at Wednesday’s session joined their counterparts from Yobe, Gombe and Borno in calling for tenure extension.

The governors were a minority though as other speakers were against it and called for outright rejection of the review of the constitution.

Twenty delegates to the recent National Political Reforms Conference (NPRC) from the North East jointly signed a document warning of the import of a constitution review and called for outright rejection.

The confab delegates asked the National Assembly and the state governors to distance themselves from “this dubious and criminal act, which is a betrayal of trust.... This country is not on fire and there is nothing in the furnace; any amendment to be made on the 1999 constitution should wait.”

The delegates included Professor Nur Alkali, former Borno Governor Muhammed Goni, Tanko Baba Andammi from Taraba state, Professor Musa Yakubu from Adamawa state, Professor Audu Iris from Borno state, Ibrahim B. Mai-sale from Yobe state and a host of others.