Emmanuel Aziken & Ayodele Adegbuyi
7 February 2007
Abuja — THE Senate, yesterday, repudiated the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Bill signed into law by President Olusegun Obasanjo last Thursday and immediately set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the signing into law of the bill.
Senate President, Chief Ken Nnamani, who announced this at the end of a closed door session of the Senate declared the bill signed into law by the President as illegal as it stood.
The Senate action came on a day it resolved not to single out the demolition of the Abuja mansion of its Deputy Majority Leader, Senator Jonathan Zwingina, for discussion.
The Senate, instead, resolved to consider the report of the Senator Idris Kuta ad-hoc committee on demolitions in the FCT which itself sanctioned the demolitions carried out by the Mallam Nasir el-Rufai-led Federal Capital Territory Administration.
The decision to repudiate the Solid Minerals and Mining Act was reached during a closed door session of the Senate during which Senators reportedly expressed concern that the signing of the bill did not follow due process.
At the heart of the complaint by the lawmakers was that the votes and proceedings of the Senate proceedings had not been adopted at the time the bill received the presidential assent. The votes and proceedings constitute the record of proceedings which, when adopted, confers legitimacy as the official record of Senate proceedings. The votes of proceedings of a session is normally adopted on the next legislative day. That of last Thursday was only adopted yesterday.
Besides, there were grievances that the procedure did not adhere to the provisions of the Acts. Authentication Act stipulates that the presiding officer of the Senate should authenticate whatever bill is passed on to the President for his assent.
Summarising the discussions after the closed Senate session that lasted about one hour 40 minutes, Chief Nnamani said: "The Senate in a closed session noticed what looked like a deviation from the normal and had to do with the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act. We found out that although the bill has been assented to by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, it is indicated that legislative due process was not given to that assent.
"To that effect, we are going to transmit a clean copy of the conference report along with appropriate votes and proceedings to the President.
The Bill has no legal backing as it stands today," Senator Nnamani said as he announced the constitution of a four-man ad-hoc committee to investigate the circumstances that led to the wrong procedure.
The committee which is chaired by Senator David Mark (PDP, Benue South) has Senators Olurunnimbe Mamora (AD, Lagos East), Baba Tela (PDP, Bauchi North) and Uche Chukwumerije (PDP, Abia North) as members.
Throwing light on the issue yesterday, Senate spokesman, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), said the Senator Mark Committee would apply sanctions against anyone found culpable after its investigations. "We also advised the President to return the bill so that the one that has gone through the whole gamut of legislative process will now be forwarded to him as a clean copy," Senator Ndoma-Egba said.
The demolition of Senator Zwingina's residence was also brought up during the closed session by the Senator himself. It was, however, gathered that once the issue came up that Senator Idris Kuta (PDP, Niger) informed his colleagues that he had chaired a committee on demolitions in Abuja and that the report of the committee had not been considered. He said Senator Zwingina's case should thus not be isolated. His submission reportedly received the endorsement of the majority of Senators.
Confirming the discussion on Senator Zwingina's demolished residence, Senator Ndoma-Egba said: "We agreed that his hasn't been the only demolition. There have been several demolitions involving the low, the high and the mighty and since we had sometime ago commissioned the committee headed by Senator Idris Kuta to investigate these demolitions and come up with a global and comprehensive picture for the attention of the Senate that we may as well address the report of that committee at this point in time instead of appearing to isolate because he is one of us and other Nigerians whether they be Senators or otherwise are deserving of the attention of the Senate."
He also confirmed the deactivation of the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras that had raised apprehension in the Senate last Thursday.
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