The 8th Senate on Wednesday has passed the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB).
“Following the adoption of the recommendations of the Technical Committee on ‘Declined Assents to Bills by Mr. President’, the @NGRSenate has once again passed the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill,” The Senate president said on its Twitter handle.
The PIGB, a fraction of a more comprehensive Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB)was first proposed some 17 years ago by stakeholders in the oil and gas sector, as an answer to the massive corruption and theft that has confronted every administration since the 1960s.
The senate also passed the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism bill 2019, National Research and Innovation Council bill 2019, Stamp Duties act (amendment) bill 2019 and National Agricultural Seed Council bill 2019.
Other bills passed are Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme (amendment) bill 2019 and Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) act 2010 (amendment) bill 2019.
Buhari had initially rejected the bills citing legal, constitutional and drafting issues as reasons for rejecting the bills after which the senate set up a technical committee to review the bills.
The bills were however, passed on Wednesday after Ahmad Lawan, senate leader, moved a motion and referred for the committee of the whole for consideration.
The bills had earlier been sent to Buhari, but he rejected them.
Consequently, the Senate set up a technical committee to review the bills. After the committee effected corrections in respect to issues raised by Buhari on the bills, the senators considered the clauses of each of the bills and passed them on Wednesday.
