Reps Protest non-Consideration Of Bills Passed By Senate

The House of Representatives on Wednesday complained that majority of bills passed by the House are yet to be attended to by the Senate as required by the law.

House Leader, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa who presented about five bills from the Senate seeking concurrence from the House said it was unfortunate that the Senate is not considering House bills the same way the House is doing to Senate bills.

He explained that in a bicameral legislature, it is expedient on both chambers to work together and give concurrence to bills passed before such bills can come into effect

He said “Mr. Speaker, I rise once again for the fifth time present Senate Bill for second reading. As I rise to do this, I want to put on record that this House takes seriously the issue of working together with the Senate for maximum performance.

“That is why this House has always given speedy consideration to bills passed by the Senate. Unfortunately, we cannot say the same thing about the Senate.

“We have quite a number of bills passed by this House which are still lying on the table of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Rules and Business unattended to. This is a thing of concern to the leadership of this House.

“I want to appeal to the Senate to give urgent attention to bills passed by this House seeking concurrence. That is how a bicameral legislature works.”

Deputy Speaker who presided over Wednesday’s plenary commended the House Leader for bringing up the issue and assured that the leadership of the House will discuss the issue with the leadership of the Senate with a view to ensuring that it is addressed as soon as possible

While supporting the position of the House Leader, Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu said the Senate should be asked to do the needful and consider bills passed by the House.