Breaking News! The House of Reps. pass 14 bills, step down oil and gas Act

The House of Representatives pass 14 bills, step down oil and gas Act

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed 14 of the Bills earlier passed by the Senate but stepped down Oil and Gas Export Free Zone Order.

The passage of the bills followed the suspension of Order XII, Rules 80, 81, 82 and 88 of the House in the plenary.

Rep. Albert Sam-Tsokwa (Taraba-PDP), the Chairman, Rules and Business, who moved for the suspension of the standing Order, said that the move became necessary to enable the passage of 14 of the bills.

“This is because of limited legislative time available to the House,” he said.

He argued that the time and resources the Senate deployed in the consideration of the bills should also be considered by the House.

The Deputy Majority Leader of the House, ‎Leo Ogor (Delta-PDP), also urged the House to step down the Oil and Gas Export Free zone Act bill because of its sensitive nature.

Rep. Betty Apiafi (Rivers-PDP), who raised a point of order proposed that some of the bills be moved to the 8th Assembly for proper legislative action.

Apiafi expressed concern that ‎there were some other important bills that were yet to be considered by the House.

The Speaker of the House, Emeka Ihedioha,‎ put the motion to a voice vote which led to the house unanimously, agreeing to pass 14 bills.

Ihedioha said “I saw screaming headlines today about the 46 bills passed by the Senate, some reports have it that they broke the Guinness Book of Records passing 46 bills in 10 minutes.

“The reporters did not appreciate what the Senate did,” he said.

According to him, to appreciate the work of the legislature, there is a parliamentary procedure for doing things, adding that objections can be raised on the matter.

NAN reports that the bills passed were Labour Safety and Health Bill, 2015, Corporate Manslaughter Bill, 2015, Proceeds of Crime Bill, 2015 among others.