Dogara gives committees one week to present pending bills

The Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has asked committees with pending bills of about six months to forward to them to “Committee of the Whole’’ within one week.

Mr. Dogara gave the ultimatum at plenary on Thursday and said that it was in line with the rules of the House.

He directed the Committee on Rules and Business ‘to do the needful’ should any committee fail to meet the deadline.

Earlier, the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Emmanuel Orker-Jev, had drawn the attention of the house to bills pending consideration at committee level.

He had said that no fewer than 150 “very important bills’’ were lying unattended to, and that some of the bills had been pending for two years.

Mr. Orker-Jev said that the rules of the house stated that any bill that remained at the committee level for up to six months should be referred to the Committee of the Whole for consideration.

In his contribution, Nicholas Ossai (Delta-PDP) said the house should act on such immediately.

He recommended that the bills be withdrawn immediately and referred to the Committee of the Whole.

Citing the house rules, Mr. Ossai said that any bill that had spent six weeks at committee level be withdrawn and forwarded as directed.

(NAN)