FG extends confab

The Federal Government has extended the duration of the ongoing National Conference by four weeks. By this extension, the National Conference will end on July 5, 2014.

Prior to the extension, some delegates had argued that the three-month period allotted to the conference was not enough. They had pleaded with the leadership of the conference to make a passionate case on their behalf for the extension of the dialogue.

Confirming the extension of the conference to Daily Sun, a delegate from Rivers State, Ann-Kio Briggs said the extension was needed in order to give conferees ad­ ditional time to elaborately deliberate on the issues at hand.

Briggs stated that the
extension became necessary because of the World Economic Summit billed to hold in Abuja as from next week. She said during the summit, the conference would be put on hold, thereby yanking off a good portion of the time allotted to it.

"We need more time to address all the issues that brought us to this conference. We have been saying that the time was not going to be enough. I am sure the conference Secretariat made a case and the Federal Government in their wisdom decided to extend the date," Briggs said.

It was however, unclear whether additional budgetary allocation would be made in order to cater for the extension. The conference Secretariat has not made an official statement regarding the extension and modalities put in place to ensure a hitch-free deliberation.