Abuja — CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, PDP, Enugu West, yesterday, vowed that no amount of intimidation from any part of the country will push him to drop the assignment of getting a new constitution for Nigeria.

Senator Ekweremadu, added that no part of the country would be taken by surprise in the area of state creation as everyone would be carried along.

Speaking, yesterday, when he received traditional rulers, elders and leaders of Eket, Esit Eket, Onna, Mkpat Enin, Ikot Abasi and Nsit Ubium Local Government Areas of Akwa Ibom State, in his office, he said that the committee would not shy away from addressing issues relating to the welfare of the people, adding that no amount of blackmail would deter the committee from going ahead.

Earlier, in his address on behalf of the people from the six local government areas, the Paramount Ruler of Ikot Abasi Local Government Area and Chairman, Akwa Ibom State Traditional Rulers Council, His Royal Majesty Edidem Ntukubom, Ntuk Obom XII, said the people totally rejected plans to uproot them from their present state to the proposed Oil Rivers State.

He said that the people of the six councils vehemently protest the inclusion of their lands, water resources and wealth in the proposed state, adding that they had contributed immensely to the national wealth over the past 40 years.