President Buhari declines assents to 5 bills, gives reasons

- President Buhari declined assent to five bills

- This was made known by the Senate president at the plenary

- Bukola Saraki has read out the president's reasons fo the rejections

President Muhammadu Buhari has declined assent to five different bills sent to him by the National Assembly in 2018.

The Punch reports that Senate president, Bukola Saraki read the rejection letter at the resumption of plenary on Wednesday, January 16.

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The bills are: Maritime Security Operations Coordinating Board (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (Amendment) Bill 2018, Bankruptcy and Insolvency Bill 2018, Federal Polytechnic (Amendment) Bill 2018 and The Energy Commission (Amendment) Bill.

Giving reasons for rejecting the Maritime Security Operations Coordinating Board (Amendment) Bill, 2019, Buhari said “the proposed amendments will create distortions and duplications with the functions and operations of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency.”

Rather, he urged the Senate “to focus on passing the suppression of piracy and other maritime offences bill currently before it in order to achieve a more comprehensive review of the operations of the maritime sector.”

Buhari said he rejected the RMFAC (amendment) bill because “it will interfere with and obstruct the smooth administration of revenue generating agencies of the Federal Government.”

Buhari said he rejected the Federal Polytechnic (amendment) bill because “its Section 16 (1)(2) of the legislation which subjects the removal of the Governing Council members and rectors of polytechnic to the approval of the Federal Executive Council, among others.”

The president also said he declined to assent to the Energy Commission (amendment) bill because “of the proposal in Section 8 that the agency will be entitled to 5 per cent from the Federation Account, is unconstitutional.”

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Meanwhile, aggrieved members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) disrupted the meeting hosted by the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, chasing zonal officers in different directions, Daily Independent reports.

Legit.ng gathered that crisis broke out when aggrieved members demanded that the local chapter chairman, Dr Adeniyi Omonijo, step aside before the commencement of the meeting.

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Source: Legit.ng