Constitution Review: Senate Goofed, Gave Out Invalid Email

The Nigerian Senate has set up a committee to review the 1999 Constitution with the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, as Chairman.

The Committee in its invitation to the general public, government agencies, civil societies, etc, provided an email address and phone numbers through which the public can make their inquiries.

However, it has been discovered that the email address provided is invalid.

The discovery was made by Sada Malumfashi, a journalist and digital security expert who tweeted this through his Twitter handle @sadaoverall, he tweeted, “The email provided in this circular is a non-existent email address for an issue and a document this sensitive. It’s about the review of the Nigerian constitution but the email address provided for inquiry is invalid.”

The Gmail address (scrs8@gmail.com) is not an official Nigerian Senate email and has made Nigerians question the seriousness of the lawmakers.

Malumfashi further explained the implication of the Nigerian Senate using a Gmail account, “Google is a US-based organization with their cybers situated in the US, which means they are legally bound to provide data to the United States Government when necessary, and this means all conversations on the Nigerian constitution via that channel can be monitored or used by Google based on the terms and conditions of opening a Gmail account.

“Moreover, it’s very unprofessional if you look at it, when the government, especially the Federal Ministry of Communication, is championing a digital revolution of using .gov.ng accounts.”

The public hearing is scheduled to hold in Jos, Minna, Bauchi, Gombe, Kaduna, Sokoto, Owerri, Enugu, Asaba, Port Harcourt, Lagos, and Akure centers. The hearing will end on Thursday, May 27, 2021.