We are not seeking to reintroduce sharia in the constitution, says Dogara

Yakubu Dogara, speaker of the house of representatives, says there is no sharia bill before the national assembly.

According to Turaki Hassan, Dogara’s spokesman, the speaker said this at a reception which the Northern Nigerian Christian politicians in Abuja held in his honour.

He said though, a lawmaker sought to put some clauses of the sharia into the constitution, no such recommendation had been made to the special ad hoc committee on constitution review.

“The proposal came in a way that a member wants some criminal aspect of sharia to be enshrined in the constitution now as a house if even there is a proposal from this floor that we should embrace ecclesiastical law we are bound to consider it and by the virtue of our rules once there is that kind of proposal we send it to the committee,” Dogara said.

“No individual member has the right to craft a bill that will lead to amendment of the constitution. Only the committee has the sole prerogative of drafting bill that will lead to constitutional amendment.

“In the senate, I am not aware that such a bill has been presented by the committee. In the house, that committee has not submitted any bill. That is where we are. It is not only totally misleading but false to say that national assembly is seeking to introduce sharia in the constitution. There is no such bill.

“I want us to get this thing clear because it is a point of contention in the Christian community not only in the north but even  in the south.  I feel I have the duty as the speaker to explain this even though I had explained it on the floor of the house before.”