NASS okays amended emergency rule proclamation

Posted by admin House, Legislature, Senate Friday, May 24th, 2013

BOTH chambers of the National Assembly, on Thursday, okayed the amended version of the State of Emergency Proclamation sent to the lawmakers by President Goodluck Jonathan.

The two chambers had set up conference committees to work on the differences in the proclamation.

President Jonathan had declared state of emergency in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states and, in line with the constitution of the country, sent the proclamation to the National Assembly for endorsement.

The version of the emergency proclamation passed by the House had whittled down the powers of the president in the administration of the affected states.
At the plenary session on Thursday, Honourable Aminu Shagari stood in for the conference committee chairman, Honourable Albert Sam-Tsokwa, where he stated that

the lawmakers acted on the proclamation on time because of its importance to public order, peace and security in the country.

However, at a press briefing, the deputy spokesperson of the House, Honourable Afam Ogene, maintained that “the amendment was not necessarily against the proclamation of emergency rule in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, but to guard against abuse of the provisions of the proclamation.

“There are democratic tenets that must still be protected and this is why we have certain differences in the versions passed. There was a familiar trend that ran through our debate on the proclamation.”

According to him “for instance, Clause 3 (2E) page 7 of the gazette declaration submitted by the executive talks about utilisation of funds of any state or local government in emergency areas. But we are not comfortable with the clause because we feel funds coming to the state and local governments should not be used for emergency. There is the tendency for anyone to want to prolong the time of emergency. We stand by the report of the conference committee.”

-Tribunewp_posts