• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Electoral Act: Reps shelve plans to veto Buhari on controversial re-ordering of elections’ time table

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KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja

The House of Representatives has finally stepped down the debate on the controversial re-ordering of elections’ time table in the amended Electoral Act, 2010.

President Muhammadu Buhari in a letter sent to the House, expressed his resolve to withhold assent to the amendment to the Electoral Act.

During the review of the letter transmitted by President Buhari to the House in March 2018, the leadership of the House swiftly vowed to revisit the bill.

Edward Pwajok, lead sponsor of the Electoral Act who spoke when asked to lead the debate during Wednesday plenary, expressed intention to step down a ‘bill for an Act to amend the provisions of the Electoral Act, No. 6, 2010 to make provision for sequence of elections in Nigeria, and for related matters’.

Meanwhile, Femi Gbajabiamila, Majority Leader, who was listed as co-sponsor of the Electoral Act (amendment) bill, disowned the controversial bill.

He maintained that he was not at any time a party to the sponsorship of the bill.

Similarly, the House stepped down the debate on the bill for an Act to amend the provisions of the Electoral Act, No. 6, 2010 to further improve the Electoral process and for other related matters, sponsored by Aisha Dukku due to her absence when she was called upon to lead the debate on the bill.

In a related development, the House adopted all the recommendations of the State Houses of Assembly’s on the fourth alterations of the 1999 Constitution.

Speaking earlier, Yussuff Lasun, Deputy Speaker, who presided over the plenary session, explained that the House was under obligation to conclude the exercise on the Constitution review report, as the Senate had on Wednesday passed the resolution of the State Houses of Assembly.

Abdulrasaq Namdas, chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, who spoke on the House resolution, explained that Lagos State did not vote on any of the proposed amendment to the Constitution review.

He added that 35 State Houses of Assembly voted on the 33 Constitution amendments.

According to the Deputy Speaker, 33 bills seeking to alter various provisions of the Constitution were presented at the Senate and the House of Representatives on Wednesday, 26th July and Thursday 27th July, 2017 respectively.

He added that the Senate had passed 29 bills with the required two-third majority of members, while the House of Representatives passed 21 bills with the required two-thirds majority of the members.

He however observed that the two Houses passed 15 of the bills without any difference and have since transmitted same to the State Houses of Assembly for their resolution, while four of the Bills were passed with differences and have been committed to a Conference Committee for further legislative action.

“The House acknowledges that 35 State Houses of Assembly – Abia, Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross-River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara, have forwarded their resolutions on the Bills transmitted to them.