The Senate has rejected the House of Representatives version of a bill seeking to give final passage for the establishment of the Federal University of Sports.
Confusions started in the Red Chamber when the Senate through its Chairman on Sports and Youths Development, Senator Obinna Ogba ( PDP Ebonyi Central), sponsored a bill to that effect, considered and passed for a third reading on December 7, 2021, the House came up with a different version of the bill and sought for concurrence of the Senate.
Senator Obinna Ogba who sponsored the bill in the Senate, got it read for the second time on May 19, 2021, and passed for a third reading on 7th December 2021.
The Senate’s version of the bill, resolved for citing the University in Nkalagu, Ebonyi State as against Afuze in Edo State proposed in the House of Representatives version.
Senator Obinna Ogba who earlier in the 8th National Assembly, sponsored and saw to the passage of the bill before repeating the same in the 9th Senate, drew the attention of the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan to the bill already passed for third reading in the Senate.
“Mr. President, out of the six bills forwarded to us from the House of Representatives for concurrence, the one listed as number four, seeking the establishment of Federal University of Sports, Afuze in Edo State, runs contrary to the earlier one passed in the Senate.
“This bill as sponsored by me had been given the required legislative consideration by the Senate with second reading in May 2021 and third reading in December 2021.
“In the version considered and passed by the Senate, NKalagu in Ebonyi State is proposed as location for the University and not Afuze, proposed by the House of Representatives version.
“It is the House that supposed to concur to what the Senate had earlier passed and not the other way round, with this explanation, I urged that the bill should be stepped down to enable the leadership of the two chambers mediate on it,” he said.
Consequently, the Senate President on the strength of Senator Ogba’s submission stepped down the bill for further consideration until required harmonization is carried out between the Senate and the House of Representatives.
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