Members of the Bauchi state Caucus in the House of Representatives have re-submitted applications to create Katagum state from northeast Nigeria.
The re-submission followed Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu’s comments that the application for creating 31 states submitted to the House Committee on Constitution Review did not meet the law’s requirements.
However, speaking to journalists about the resubmission of the application for Katagum State, the member representing Katagum federal constituency of Bauchi state, Hon. Auwalu Gwalabe, asked the National Assembly to delete Section 3 of the 1999 Constitution to create Katagum State and additional local governments.
He said the proposal to create Katagum state had been in the works for a while and had received widespread support from the area’s residents, members of the state’s parliament, and others.
Gwalabe said, “As you know, some time ago, we demanded the creation of Katagum State, and a memorandum was submitted to the Committee on Constitutional Review. Unfortunately, the Committee realised there were errors in almost all the memoranda, the 31 memos sent to them.
“They gave us an ultimatum, a time limit of 5th of March, to correct all these memos and resubmit to the Committee. Today, we are submitting our re-corrected documents duly signed by our elected councillors and elected chairmen of the local government councils.
“Our elected members of the state assemblies, our elected members from the House of Representatives, and our elected senators from the zone and other zones from Bauchi State. We are submitting these documents to the Committee on Constitutional Review.
“So given that, and on behalf of the entire people, the entire population of the United People of Katagum, Jama’are, and Misau are the carved areas demanding the creation of Katagum State. We will now hand over these documents to the committee clerk, who will send all the information to the central committee.
“We have the manpower, we have the land spread, and we have the facilities. We agitated for; we have been agitating since 1980 during the second republic when Shagari was the president, and Olushola was the senate president. We have been agitating. We agitated for the second time and lost to Gombe.
“You should all be aware that the members of the National Assembly who all come from these areas demanding the creation of Katagum State have sent in. We have passed a motion. We first read to support our people from the same carved area. We had the second reading and are probably going for a public hearing.
“We are even so lucky to have some of our colleagues from Bauchi State who are not from the carved areas demanding the creation of Katagum State also supported us in signing and supporting our bills. One of our Senators, Abdul Ningi, signed and supported this creation.
“Our Governor, the Governor of Bauchi State, Dr Bala Muhammad Kauran Bauchi, also supported this memo and gave us a perfect encouragement to make sure we will do the right thing, correct all these documents and resubmit. They are all in support. So, by this, I will ask my colleagues to stand up”.
Also speaking, Hon. Ibrahim Gamawa said the proposed Katagum State already meets all the requirements for its creation.
He said, “Even state capitals created long ago do not have some of the facilities as the proposed state capitals enjoy presently if you look at the road networks connecting Azare with significant towns in the north like Kano and Maiduguri, the power grid, road networks in the state, and even the university.
“We presently have a university in Azare. We have a teaching hospital and other facilities. So, creating Katagum State will not be a burden to the federal government. Very little will be done for this state capital.
“So I think one of the foremost states, even if you had to create two states in Nigeria, I’m sure Katagum will qualify. So we are submitting this with the hope that it will be looked into properly and we shall get what we want, Insha Allah”.
Hon Sani Tanko stated that Katagum state has a very long history. He was happy that members from the state and the Katagum area were unanimous in their endorsement of the agitation, which he said was a mandate that must be fulfilled for their people.
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