NASS to probe 19 bills rejected by Buhari – Lawan

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, has stated the Senate will investigate the 19 Constitution Alteration Bills rejected by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

Lawan made this known during plenary on Tuesday.

The National Assembly had in January, transmitted 35 Constitutional Alteration bills to the President for assent but Buhari had on Friday last week, assented to 16 out of 35 Constitution alterations bills transmitted to him for assent by the National Assembly.

Briefing at the Senate in Plenary Tuesday on the presidential action, Lawan said out of the 35 constitution alteration bill forwarded to the President in January for assent, 19 of them were rejected while 16 of them were assented to.

The Senate President noted that the most striking of the assented 16 bills according to him, was the fifth alteration bill number six which makes provisions for financial independence of State Houses of Assembly and Judiciary.

Lawan said, “We sent 35 Constitution Amendment bills. 16 of them were approved while 19m of them were rejected.

“We will find out why those bills were rejected because we put a lot of resources into the process.”

The Senate President added, “We will continue to engage the executive and go through the bills and see if there are issues that we can deal with within the short period, we will continue to pursue them.

“But if the issues are cumbersome, we can leave it for the 10th Assembly.”

The first of such 19 bills rejected by the President was the fifth alteration bill number 24, which sought an Act to Alter the Second Schedule to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to empower the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly to summon the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Governors of States to answer questions on issues on which the National and State Houses of Assembly have the powers to make.

Also, alteration bill number 7 which sought an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to compel persons to obey or comply with Legislative Summons, was refused assent by the President.

Others are fifth alteration bill number 29 which sought for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to provide for a State of the Nation and State of the State Address by the President and Governor.

Fifth alteration bill number 22 which sought for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Specify the period within which the President or the Governor of State shall present the Appropriation Bill before the National Assembly or House of Assembly

Fifth alteration bill number 30 which sought an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Include Former Heads of the National Assembly in the Council of State.

Fifth alteration bill number 14 which sought an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to move Fingerprints, Identification and Criminal Records from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List

Fifth alteration bill number 18 which sought an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to empower the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission to Enforce Compliance with the Remittance of Accruals into and Disbursement of Revenue from the Federation Account and Streamline the Procedure for Reviewing the Revenue Allocation Formula.

Fifth alteration bill number 66 which sought an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Reflect the Establishment and Core Functions of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps etc.

Punch