FG delaying passage of PIB ' Reps

The House of Representatives on Thursday blamed the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill on the Federal Government.The House explained that the Executive had failed to submit its own version of the bill to the National Assembly thereby delaying proceedings on the planned legislation.The Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Mr. Albert Sam-Tsokwa, told journalists in Abuja that the lower legislature had reintroduced a version of the PIB, which the sixth National Assembly was unable to pass.Sam-Tsokwa noted that the House completed the first reading of the bill with the intention to speed up its passage.However, he said the House received communication from the Executive, requesting its members to wait for its own version of the PIB.He said that following the request, the House had to slow down work on the bill.The committee Chairman said, We are waiting for the Executive to send its own version of the bill to us. We earlier reintroduced the bill from the last Assembly and it went through first reading.When the Executive version comes, we shall compare the two and harmonise them because we are interested in passing the bill.The lawmaker, who also spoke on the activities of the seventh House since June 6 this year, said that it had passed 10 bills and considered 137 motions.Sam-Tsokwa said, The House, within the period under review, has introduced 127 bills, all of which have passed first reading.Seventy-eight of these bills are awaiting second reading, 33 bills have been referred to standing committees and eight bills are awaiting consideration of the committee of the whole.It is important to note that the House has passed a total number of 10 bills and had one bill withdrawn, he added.Some of the passed bills are the State of the Nation Address Bill, 2011; Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act (Amendment) Bill, 2011; and the Harmonised Retirement Age of Staff of Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Bill, 2011.
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