The House of Representatives on Wednesday directed the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Mr. Magaji Tambuwal to transmit a bill which seeks to extend the retirement age of judges currently at 65 to 70 years, to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
The bill seeking to extend the retirement age of High Court Judges from 65 to 70 years was part of 46 constitution alteration bills transmitted to States Houses of Assembly for concurrence in March last year.
The passage followed the adoption of a motion entitled ‘Passage of Constitution (Fifth) Alteration Bill No. 20 (Uniform Retirement Age for Judicial Officers and Pension Rights) 2023,’ and sponsored by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Idris Wase and 69 other lawmakers.
In his lead debate, the Minority Leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu who is one of the co-sponsors said on April 5, 2023 that the CNA was directed to transmit Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No. 47 that met the requirement of Section 9(2) of the Constitution to the President for his assent.
“The House also recalls that the Houses of Assembly of Gombe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kwara, Plateau, Sokoto and Taraba States that were yet to forward their resolutions were urged to do so in compliance with Constitutional obligation.
“The House is aware that the Sokoto State House of Assembly has accordingly forwarded its resolution.
“The House is convinced that with the approval of Sokoto State House of Assembly, the Constitution (Fifth Alteration) Bill No 20 (Uniform Retirement Age for Judicial Officers and Pension Rights) has met the provisions of Section 9(2) of the Constitution, for passage,” he said.
Also at the plenary, the House while adopting a motion sponsored by Ben Igbakpa from Delta resolved to invite Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) to review their maximum demand metering and billing system on domestic end users and stop same from applying to non-commercial/ industrial end users.
The lawmakers also mandated all rhe DisCos to comply with the extant laws and regulations to provide metres for all electricity customers and to put a final end to estimated billing.
The lawmakers further said DisCos be mandated to energize donated transformers timeously, in order to prevent vandalisation and to stop forthwith the unwholesome and illegal practice of compelling communities to pay before transformers are energized.
In the same vein, the Deputy Speaker, who presided over the plenary session set up a conference committee on the prohibition of sexual harassment of students in universities.
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