The Senate says it will not accept the House of Representatives Bill which seeks to give lawmakers immunity.<\/p>\n
The chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Sen. Enyinnaya\u00a0 Abaribe, made this known at a news briefing on Tuesday in Abuja.<\/p>\n
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that a Bill requesting for the inclusion of Legislative Powers and Privileges Act in the Constitution passed second reading last week in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Abaribe expressed surprise that a lawmaker should seek immunity outside the chambers of the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
“The Legislative Powers and Privileges Act already gives every legislator immunity for whatever you say on the floor of the chamber. So, that is already a settled law and fact.<\/p>\n
“I will be very surprised if somebody is asking for immunity outside the chambers of the National Assembly. Why would anybody ask for such?<\/p>\n
“We do not want to grant anybody such immunity. I don\u2019t think that will pass any floor.<\/p>\n
“No legislator will seek immunity outside the chamber for whatever he does outside of the parliament,” Abaribe said.<\/p>\n
The Senate spokesman also announced that the Senate was yet to receive the President\u2019s request for amendment of the 2013 Appropriation Act.<\/p>\n
He said all budgetary documents required corrections to ensure that the appropriation was properly reflected according to the needs of every sector of the economy.<\/p>\n
He disclosed that Senators were taking time to study the budget as copies of the appropriation assented to by the President had been supplied to them.<\/p>\n
“Every budget is an organic system which means that there will be corrections and those corrections can be done through another appropriation that will be sent as supplementary.<\/p>\n
“We are just today receiving the copies. Each senator is getting a copy of the signed act and I\u2019m sure in the next few days all of us are going to make sure that we study it carefully,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Senate on Tuesday confirmed the appointment of five new commissioners into the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC)<\/p>\n
The confirmation was sequel to the consideration and approval of the report of its Committee on Establishment and Public Service which screened the nominees.<\/p>\n
The confirmed commissioners are Dr Ngozi Etolue (Anambra) representing Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu; Hon. Hope Ikiriko (Rivers) representing Bayelsa, Rivers and Delta and Prof. Aminu Sheidu (Kogi) representing Kogi and Kwara States.<\/p>\n
Others are Mr Emmanuel Ihedioha (Abia) representing Imo and Abia, and Mr Joseph Akande (Osun) who represents Osun and Oyo States. (NAN)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Senate says it will not accept the House of Representatives Bill which seeks to give lawmakers immunity. The chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Sen. Enyinnaya\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n