The National Assembly on Thursday deferred passage of the controversial Electoral Act (amendment) Bill till Tuesday, next week.
The report on the bill was dramatically stepped down in both the Senate and the House of Representatives chambers, where it had been listed for consideration by lawmakers.
While the Senate was to start the consideration for the first time on Thursday, the House had earlier started on Wednesday and was to continue on Thursday before it was suddenly dropped.
Senate drops bill for comprehensive work
The report, which was laid by the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission on Tuesday, was not listed for consideration on Wednesday.
Though it was listed on the Order Paper on Thursday, the Majority Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, moved that the consideration should be stood down to allow the committee to take “more legislative action for the report to be more comprehensive.”
Lawan further moved that the report should be considered on the next legislative day. The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, put the motion to a voice vote and it was unanimously approved.
House defers bill for more consultations
The House of Representatives halted the consideration to allow members to consult more on the provisions of the bill.
Lawmakers had started considering the bill earlier on Wednesday for final passage and later adjourned till Thursday (yesterday) for continuation.
But, on Thursday, the Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara, abruptly announced that the bill had been stepped down for “further consultations.”
He didn’t give details as he rammed his gavel to signal the deferment of the consideration till Tuesday, next week.
The bill was stepped down to allow members take a position on how to vote on the items in the bill and to avoid a repeat of Wednesday’s dispute over the clause on Card Reader.
Recall that on Wednesday, the Card Reader clause split members of the House, leading to some Peoples Democratic Party members leaving the chamber in protest.
The card is captured under Clause 16 in the amendment bill.
It makes a broad provision that the Card Reader “or any other technological device that may be prescribed by the commission (Independent National Electoral Commission)” will be deployed for the accreditation of voters in an election.
In addition, the clause states that where the Card Reader fails in any unit, the election in such a unit “shall be cancelled” and another election scheduled within the next 24 hours.
However, PDP lawmakers sought to delete ‘or any other technological device that may be prescribed by the commission’ from the bill.
They argued that the bill should specify just the card reader so that the Independent National Electoral Commission would not manipulate an election by deploying ‘any other’ technological device to promote a particular interest.
This had led to a disagreement between them and some members of the All Progressives Congress. When the PDP lawmakers couldn’t have their way, a number of them left the chamber in protest.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mr Abdulrazak Namdas, on why the bill was stepped down, he said there was nothing to worry about since it would be passed on Tuesday, next week.
Namdas explained that stepping the bill down was to ensure that thorough work was done on it.
“The bill will be tabled again on Tuesday; we will pass it. There is no cause for alarm,” he added.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had returned the bill to the National Assembly on August 30 after he withheld his assent to it for the second time this year alone.
Senate considers Buhari’s FERMA nominees, confirms Durunguwa as NPC commissione
The Senate on Thursday considered President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for the confirmation of his nominees for the board of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency.
The nominees are Tunde Lemo as Chairman; and Nurudeen Abdulrahaman Rafindadi, Buba Silas Abdullahi, Babagana Mohammed Aji, Shehu Usman Abdullahi, Loretta Ngozichukwu Aniagolu, Mujaidu Stanley Dako, and Vincent Oladapo Kolawole as Executive Directors.
The Senate President, Saraki, referred the confirmation request to the Senate Committee on FERMA, which will screen the nominees, asking it to report back in two weeks.
The Senate equally confirmed the appointment of Dr Abdulmalik Mohammed Durunguwa as a Commissioner of the National Population Commission.
Confirmation of the appointments followed the adoption of the report by the Senate Committee on National Identity Card and National Population Commission presented by the Chairman, Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi.
In a related development, the Senate on Thursday failed to confirm Buhari’s nominees as Chairman and members of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission. The consideration was stood down to the next legislative day.
$2.7bn loan request, others stepped down by Reps
Meanwhile, the House also stepped down consideration of Buhari’s request to borrow $2.7bn from the International Capital Market to finance the 2018 budget.
0 Comments