Senate passes 13 bills to amend 1999 Constitution

Thirteen bills seek­ing to amend cer­tain sections of the 1999 Constitution passed through Second Reading at the Senate on Tuesday.

The bills, sponsored by nine senators, have been referred to the Constitution Review Committee for more legislative action.

The review commit­tee, chaired by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, is expect­ed to work on the bills with relevant stakehold­ers and submit report to the Upper House within four weeks.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) report, unlike other bills, which are usually debated before scaling Second Read­ing, a bill to amend the constitution goes through the stage with­out debate.

The process of amending the constitu­tion was halted in 2015 following non-assent by former President Goodluck Jonathan to a similar bill passed by the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, the report on Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in ac­cordance with Section 4 (4) of NEITI Act 2007 and the report of Com­mittee on Agriculture and Rural Development on Nigeria Food Secu­rity Bill 2016 have been laid in the Senate.