The Senate, yesterday, resolved that the 12 bills which have met the requirements of the provisions of Section 9 of the Constitution and passed, be processed in line with the Acts Authentication Act, and transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.
The upper legislative chamber, said notwithstanding the resolution of some State Houses of Assembly on some of the bills, the action, it noted, would “enable the institutions of government prepare for immediate implementation of policies and programmes pursuant to the provisions.”
This was sequel to a motion, entitled, “Passage of Constitution (Fourth) Alteration Bills, 2018”, sponsored by the Deputy Senate President,Ike Ekweremadu (PDP Enugu West), and 49 others. Some of the sponsors include; the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan (APC Yobe North); Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye (APC Osun Central) and the Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio (PDP Akwa Ibom Northwest). Presenting the motion on behalf of Senator Ekweremadu, Senate Leader Lawan said the Senate was aware of the provisions of Section 9 of the Constitution as amended, in processing the alteration of the provision of the document. According to him, 33 bills seeking to alter various provisions of the constitution were presented at the floor of the Senate and the House of Representatives on Wednesday, 26th July and Thursday, 27th July, 2017 respectively.
Senator Lawan recalled that “the Senate approved 29 of the bills with the required 2/3 majority of members, the House of Representatives approved 21 of the bills with not less than 2/3 majority”. He also noted that “the two Houses approved 17 of the bills without difference and were transmitted to the state Houses of Assembly for their resolution, while four were approved with amendment and have been committed to a conference committee for further action, in line with the Senate and House of Representatives.”
The Senate leader acknowledged that 35 state Houses of Assembly namely; Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara, have forwarded their resolution on most of the bills. Senator Lawan, however, listed 12 constitution alteration bills that satisfied the provisions of Section 9(2) of the constitution for their passage into law.
They include: Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bills No 2 (Authorisation of Expenditure in absence of Appropriation); No 4 (Financial Autonomy of State legislatures); No 8 (The Legislature); No 9 (Political parties and Electoral Matters); No 15 (The Nigeria Police Force); No 16 (Restriction of Tenure of President and Governor); No 20 (Submission from the Judiciary); and No 21 (Determination of Pre-Election Matters). Others are Constitution (Fourth Alteration) Bills No 22 (Consequential Amendment on Civil Defence); No 24 (Procedure for Overriding Presidential Veto in Constitutional Alteration); No 27 (Reduction of Age for Election); and No 28 (Time Line for the Presentation of Appropriation Bill) respectively. In his remarks, Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary, put the resolution into voice votes, and was unanimously approved by majority of senators in attendance.
Summons Adeosun, Emefiele In another development, the Red Chamber has directed its Committee on Appropriation to summon the Ministers of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, her counterpart in the Defence Ministry, Muhammad Dan-Ali, as well as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, over alleged illegal withdrawal of $462 million from the Federation Accounts without appropriation by the National Assembly.
The trio, according to the upper legislative chamber, are to explain why the money was ‘illegally withdrawn’ for purchase of helicopters without the National Assembly’s approval. This directive was sequel to a motion moved by Senator Samuel Anyanwu (PDP, Imo East), in which he accused the ministers of allegedly withdrawing the above sum last week Wednesday, for payment to an American company for the purchase of helicopters without seeking approval from the National Assembly. Moving the motion, Anyanwu cited Section 80 of the 1999 Constitution (Amended), which requires that no money should be withdrawn from the consolidated revenue of the federation without the approval of the National Assembly.
He said: “In March, 2018, from the Federation Account, a whooping sum of $462 million was withdrawn by the federal government. It paid to an American firm for the purchase of helicopters called Helicopters Techno Fight. “This was done without an approval from this Senate and from the National Assembly. I know that there was no time any request was brought here for the approval of such an amount by the federal government from the Federation Account. “As a senator of this country, I want to find out how this thing was done.
I will request that we invite the CBN governor, the Ministers of Defence and Finance. They need to tell us how these monies were withdrawn and paid to this American firm without the approval of the Senate.” Consequently, he asked the Senate to summon the CBN governor, the finance and defence ministers to explain why such transaction should be contracted by the executive without seeking approval by the Senate. In his ruling, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekwerenmadu, who presided over the plenary, referred the matter to the Senate Committee on Appropriation to invite the trio to explain their roles, and submit the report to the senate in one week. He charged the Appropriations Committee to find out if there was such release and if the money was appropriated by the National Assembly in the budget of 2017. Constitution alteration: Senate okays Bills on state legislature autonomy
