The special House of Representatives Ad hoc committee on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) has announced the creation of a dedicated website to enable the public access content of the proposed law, as well as make inputs or raise questions on any area of concerns.
Chairman of the committee and Chief Whip of the House, Tahir Monguno, disclosed this at the inaugural meeting of the panel on Wednesday, giving the website address as; www.hrpib.org. ng
The House on Tuesday passed the Bill for second reading, and subsequently referred it to the Ad hoc committee for further legislative action.
Lamenting the long but unsuccessful journey the Bill went through in the past, and the determination of the current House to see it through, Monguno said, “As you are aware, the journey to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill commenced in 2007 when it was first introduced on the floor on the floor of the house.
“However the passage of the bill has evaded three successive Assemblies i.e the 6th, 7th, & 8th Assemblies.
“Under our watch as a Committee, which I am privileged to Chair, it is a general consensus that the passage of this Bill is long overdue. We are taking time to review what has been done by the previous Assemblies and what we need to do differently.
“Prior to the referral of the Bill, the Leadership of the House, the Senate and the relevant Committees of the National Assembly, has been briefed by the Hon. Minister of Petroleum with his team, wherein most of the concerns and controversies contained in the previous drafts has been significantly addressed with this present draft.”
He said going forward, the Committee will do its best by engaging various stakeholders, civil societies and general public by subjecting the Bill to detailed and public scrutiny to ensure that Nigerians are carried along. We are confident that this piece of legislation will stand the test of time.
On new online platform, he said, “The Committee has taken liberty to create a Website which will serve as one of the platforms where stakeholders and interested members of the general public can download the text of the Bill and also upload comments/inputs/memoranda to same.”
