Senate reconsiders, passes 7 bills for Buhari’s assent

THE Senate on Tuesday reconsidered and passed seven bills that were earlier passed by both chambers of National Assembly and passed the same through the third and final reading.

The bills were earlier passed by the two chambers but the Legal Department of the National Assembly observed some issues and returned them to the chambers.

The passage of the bills followed a motion on “Committal of bills to the Committee of the Whole” moved by the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmad Lawan, APC-Yobe North during plenary on Tuesday.

The bills include Nigerian Aeronautical Search and Rescue Bill, 2018; Climate Change (Est, etc) Bill, 2018; Chartered Institute of Pension Practitioner of Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 and Chartered Institute of Training and Development of Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2018.

The rest are National Institute of Credit Administration (Est, etc) Bill, 2018; Digital Rights and Freedom (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 and Nigerian Film Corporation (Repeal & Re-enactment) Bill, 2018, respectively.

While presenting the motion, Senator Lawan, stated that after critical examination of the bills, the Directorate of Legal Services of the National Assembly observed some fundamental issues which required fresh legislative action on some clauses in the bills.

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The affected bills with their clauses include: Nigerian Aeronautical Search and Rescue Bill, 2018 – Clause 2 (1)(2); Climate Change (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 – Clause 2 (1)(4), 3(1)(f), 5(2), 7(1)(a) (2)(a), 8, 9, 17(1); Chartered Institute of Pension Practitioner of Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 – Clause 11 and the Chartered Institute of Training and Development of Nigeria (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 – Clause 18 (2) & (6).

Also included are the National Institute of Credit Administration (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 – Clause 7 (3)(5) and 8 (1)(3); Digital Rights and Freedom (Est, etc) Bill, 2018 – Clause 4 (1)(2)(3) and the Nigerian Film Corporation (Repeal & Re-enactment) Bill, 2018 – Clause 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19.

The Senate Leader said that “a technical committee of the Senate, House of Representatives and Directorate of Legal Services met and worked on the clauses.”

Relying on Order 1(b) and 53(6) of Senate Standing Order 2015 as amended, the Senate Leader urged the Senate to “rescind its decision on the affected clauses of the bills as passed and recommit same to the Committee of the Whole for reconsideration and passage.”

The Senate therefore unanimously reconsidered and passed the bills through Third and final reading in the Committee of the Whole.