Legislative activities of the House of Representatives came to a conclusion Thursday, with the laying of the petition from the Solicitor to former First Lady, Patience Jonathan. The petition which was read on the floor of the House was signed by her counsel, G. I. Abibo of Granville Abibo & Co. In its usual practice, Speaker Yakubu Dogara has referred the petition to the House Committee on Public Petition, chaired by Uzoma Nkem-Abonta for further legislative action. According to a copy of the petition which I sighted, Mrs. Jonathan’s counsel who relayed her ordeal from the operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), specifically accused “EFCC through its Acting Chairman, Ibrahim Magu of sponsoring spurious report against our client to the United Kingdom authorities and other international bodies, all in a grand design to forestall her renewal of her international visa and other traveling documents. The allegations sprouted out against our client by the EFCC, were duly investigated by the UK authorities and other international bodies who found the reports baseless and thereupon issued the international visa and other travelling documents to our client.
“There have been assassination attempts, at least twice, between February and April, 2017 against our client ostensibly by the operatives of EFCC along the Yenagoa-Mbiama road, Bayelsa State in furtherance of its unlawful actions against the former first family.
“On the 3rd of May, 2017, the agents/officials of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in a convoy of about 20 Lorrie’s and over 70 personnel raised our client’s NGO – Aridolf Jo Resort Wellness and Spa Limited situated at Expressway, Kpansia, Bayelsa State and orchestrated a massive destruction or personal properties belonging to our client, without any lawful court order or search warrant and caused mayhem there under the guise of trying to collect unpaid taxes without following any due process provides by law to do so,” the petition read in part.
On the final lapse of the fourth alteration of the 1999 Constitution, the Special Ad-hoc Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives are expected to have a joint retreat where various proposals would be harmonised.
Ahead of the harmonisation conference, the House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary is set to hold a public hearing on 34 bills initiated by the Judiciary into the Constitution. The public hearing slated for 12th July, 2017 will attract the reverend and top legal luminaries in the Judiciary arm of government. According to my findings, while confirming this, Abdulrasak Namdas, chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs said: We have invited the legal practitioners to come and give us their views because it’s going to be part of the constitution review so it’s the position of the judiciary in respect of ongoing constitution review. They amounted to about 34 bills and to be safe, we have decided to schedule the public hearing so that we ask legal practitioners to come and relate with us so that we incorporate their views in the ongoing constitution review. Because we have going to also have a retreat on the constitution review on the 13th, 14th and 15th of July. So we will like to collate these views then go for the retreat in Lagos so that we can incorporate the views of Nigerians as far as our constitution review is concerned,” Namdas explained.
Other major bills considered by the House include: “Repeal Pension Reform Act, 2014 and amend Part 3, Section 7(2) and other related matters, sponsored by Dennis Amadi (PDP-Enugu).
According to Amadi, the bill specifically proposed upward review of 25 percent of pension accrued to Retirement Savings Account (RSA) of employee, to 50 percent. In my unbias view, the bill will in no small way bring succor to millions of pensioners who are presently facing hard times in accessing their contributory pension and boost life expectancy rate of Nigerians. It will amaze you to note that some notable civil servants who retired from the federal civil service died while pursuing their pension. But I keep asking why the arrangement was made to be in favour of the dependants rather than the real beneficiary of the pension? For me, it was a well conceived legislation that will boost morale of Nigerian workers and when the public hearing is conveyed, it will definitely receive overwhelming support of the organised labour and major stakeholders.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
