Dr. Tunji Braithwaite, a former presidential aspirant and member of the ongoing National Conference was yesterday bundled out of the conference venue by officers of the State Security Service, SSS, for not putting on his tag.
This was even as the activist insisted that the outcome of the conference must be approved through a referendum and not by the National Assembly. Braithwaite, who was initially accosted at the entrance of the hall by the SSS officers refused to put on his tag, asking them whether they did not know him personally, but officers claimed that they did not know him and he left them and entered.
Having been seated comfortably for about 10 minutes, two SSS officers pounced on him and told him the reason why he had to cooperate with them, showing him that other delegates put on their tags.
Braithwaite was, however, ushered out of the hall by a lady SSS and a man, insisting that he must go and pick his tag from the secretariat. The security officials added that it was the instruction from the secretariat that delegates and others must put on their tags while the session was on.
Braithwaite, who has not since the inception of the conference, seemed not to be aware of the rules and later went to obtain his tag. The SSS officials were apparently reacting to the warning from the Chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, last week that all delegates should put on their tags to avoid embarrassment from the security operatives. Braithwaite, who admitted being accosted by the security agents, however, stated that he was not bundled out of the hall.
In an interview, he said that the report of the conference could not be subjected to the approval of the National Assembly and if that was the intention of the Federal Government, he would pull out of the conference.
He said that the best thing was to subject the report of the ongoing conference to the approval of the people of Nigeria through a referendum as proposed by President Goodluck Jonathan.
“I was not here during the presidential inauguration speech and I have not read the speech, but this is the conference that is supposed to represent the ethnic nationalities of the country.
“The National Assembly having to rectify the report would make nonsense of the deliberation. If the report has to be rectified by the NASS, I would opt out of this conference. It has to go through referendum.
Government derives legitimacy from the sovereignty of the people not the other way round. “So, to say that the National Assembly has to rectify the conference report is wrong. The President is a man of destiny because he happens to be there at this point in time.
This conference would have come up in any event. “We said it several times that if government did not convoke the conference, people would convoke the conference on their own.”