Kogi State House of Assembly has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately restore 12 suppressed state constituencies, in accordance with constitutional provisions, court judgements and recent resolutions of the National Assembly.
This followed a motion moved by the lawmaker representing Kabba/Bunu State Constituency, Seyi Bello, stated that the 1999 Constitution empowers INEC under Sections 112, 114 and the Third Schedule to conduct constituency delimitation and ensure equitable population distribution.
The lawmaker also cited Section 91 of the Constitution, which prescribes that states must have between three and four times their number of federal constituencies represented in their State Assemblies.
Bello explained that with Kogi having nine federal constituents, the state should constitutionally have between 27 and 36 State Assembly seats.
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He said “Kogi State currently has only 25 constituencies, which falls below the constitutional minimum”.
He recalled that upon the creation of Kogi State in 1991, the first Assembly had 32 constituencies, but a 1998 INEC review suppressed twelve constituencies, including Kabba-Bunu II, Ijumu II, Koton Karfe I, Yagba West II, Adavi II, Ife/Ogodu, Igala Ogba, Okura, Enjema, Dekina Town, Olamaboro II and Bassa-Nge/Gbirra.
He described the suppression as a grave violation of the constitutional rights of the affected communities, referenced two court cases: a 2014 suit by the Kogi State Government, which in 2015 secured a Federal High Court judgement ordering INEC to restore six constituencies in Kogi East; and another by Omoluabi Olabode Adeyemi seeking the restoration of Kabba-Bunu II Constituency.
