The Federal Government is to spend extra N1.454bn on the delegates attending the National Conference due to the four-week extension it granted the confab on Thursday.

There are 492 delegates at the conference and six principal officials.

The Chairman of the conference, Justice Idris Kutigi, announced the extension period to the delegates at their plenary on Thursday.

He said the extension was granted at a meeting the leadership of the conference had with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Pius Anyim, on Wednesday night.

He said the leadership had wanted six-week extension.

He said, “After our sitting yesterday (Wednesday), we visited the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and we were informed that the government only granted us four weeks extension. We have asked for six but we were given only four weeks.

“In that regard, we have to get our programmes tighten up because I think the conference will now end on July 31.

“Due to the time factor, the conference management feels we should request from the delegates whether you are prepared to put in extra sitting hours on Fridays and Saturday.

“I know you did a lot during the committee stage, now is the final stage we also need the same sacrifices from you. We are requesting for additional sittings on Fridays and Saturdays.”

After the announcement, Kutigi said since the conference did not get the six weeks required, delegates would have to work on Fridays and Saturdays.

The delegates rejected the suggestion.

A delegate representing Kebbi State, Dr. Bello Muhammed, said there was no need for an extension in the sitting time if the conference could come up with a right procedure in deliberating and adopting various committees’ recommendations.

Mrs. Esther Gonda, representing Plateau State, suggested that the two hours allotted for lunch should be reduced to one, “because I have observed that some of us finish eating by 3pm.”

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief Mike Ozekhome, agreed that the time for lunch should be reduced and suggested that the time allotted to each delegate to speak on a matter should be reduced to three minutes.

“We should also sit by 9am instead of 10am which is the normal time parliamentarians and courts sit across the world,” Ozekhome said.

After various suggestions by the delegates, the conference agreed to be resuming sitting by 9am from Mondays to Thursdays.

Kutigi, however, said the 9am sitting agreement would commence on Monday.

Meanwhile, Kutigi has threatened to arrest aides of delegates who were mobilising to disrupt the sitting of the conference over their non-inclusion among those to be paid during the conference.

-Punch