The House of Representatives has approved the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) proposal for an additional state constituency in Benue State following a motion by Hon. Edward Gyang Pwajok (PDP:Plateau) on the matter. The approval of the House at its plenary session on Tuesday, 14th May 2019 is in line with an earlier proposal by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) requesting National Assembly’s approval of same. This is also in compliance with the Supreme Court judgment that ordered the creation of a new State Constituency in Benue State.
Highlights of Hon. Pwajok’s motion included that sections 91 and 112 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) contained provisions detailing how the number of seats in a State House of Assembly and the boundaries of each State constituency could be determined. It also mentioned INEC’s power to review the division of State Constituencies at an interval of at least ten years (in accordance with section 114 of the Constitution) before arguing that Benue State ought to have a higher number of State Constituencies going by the constitutionally prescribed provisions.
In addition, Hon Pwajok drew the attention of the House to a 2016 Supreme Court judgment of INEC V GUMA LOCAL Government Council, where the Court had ordered INEC to create an additional Agasha State Constituency from the GUMA State constituency of Benue State.
The Guma Constituency is to be altered as designated below:
1 Guma State Constituency, comprising
(i) Mbabai (03)
(ii) Mbadwem (04)
(iii) Mbawa (05)
(iv) Mbayer/Yandev (06)
(v) (Nyiev (07)
(vi) Uvir (10), and
2 Agasha State Constituency, comprising
(i) Abinsi (01)
(ii) Kaambe (02)
(iii) Nzorov (08)
(iv) Saghev (09)
