The Senate also said the bill will address the on-going food crisis in Nigeria.
The Senate on Wednesday amended the Maize Export Prohibition Bill to provide for at least one year imprisonment for persons found guilty of exporting unprocessed maize in large quantities.
The House of Representatives had passed the bill and forwarded it to the Senate for concurrence. It seeks to prohibit the exportation of maize or its derivatives in large commercial quantities.
The amendment was passed after a majority of the senators supported it through voice votes at the Committee of the Whole, where the clauses were considered.
The bill was amended to prescribe that;
(1) Any person who -
(a) takes
(b) causes another person to take,
(c ) induces another person to take, or
(d) attempts to take: unprocessed maize whether in grains, on cobs, fresh or dry, in large commercial quantity of a minimum of one metric ton or higher, out of Nigeria, commits an offence.
(2) A person who contravenes the provisions of subsection (1), is liable on conviction to a fine in momentary value of the goods exported or sought to be exported or imprisonment for a term of one year or both.
(3) A customs officer or other person who aids, counsels, procures or conspires with another person to commit an offence under this section, is liable on conviction to the penalty under subsection (2); and
(4) The Federal High Court has jurisdiction over any offence committed under this Bill.
Lead Debate
Leading debate on the bill, the Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, said it aims to prohibit the exportation of maize.
He said it also seeks to address the on-going food crisis in Nigeria.
The senate leader noted that the bill is straightforward and had gone through the necessary legislative process in the House of Representatives.
He therefore urged his colleagues to support the bill.
The Minority Leader, Abba Moro, seconded the presentation of the bill.
Amendment
Garba Maidoki, the senator representing Kebbi South Senatorial District, however, proposed an amendment to remove derivatives from the provision of the bill.
Some maize derivatives include corn flour, cornmeal, corn gluten, cornflakes, cornstarch and many others
"We must be fair to our people. We are the farmers, we grow these things," he added.
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Aminu Abbas (PDP, Adamawa Central) seconded the amendment proposed by Mr Maidoki.
The Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, who presided over the session, in his remarks said "The derivatives are the products of the value chain because you create job by allowing that to occur."
With the passage of the bill erasing derivatives from its provisions, the two chambers of the National Assembly will have constitute a conference committee to harmonise and resolve the differences in the versions passed by them.
After resolving the difference, both chambers will then adopt the agreed version and pass the bill at plenary before it is forwarded by the Clerk to the National Assembly to the president for assent.
