No Sharia Bill passed in House of Reps - Dogara

  29/05/2016 

 

Speaker of the House of Repre­sentatives, Yakubu Dogara, has cleared the air on the alleged secret passage of a Sharia Bill by the lower chamber of the federal legis­lature.

Responding to inquiries over the issue on his official twitter handle - @Speakerdogara - at the weekend, the Speaker described as ‘crass ig­norance’ of the legislative process for someone to insinuate that a bill could be sneaked in and passed.

He pointed out that “bills are always gazetted before they are scheduled for Second Reading and Gazettes are public documents.”

 

All the same, Dogara explained that the bill in question only seeks to amend the provision of the Con­stitution to make some criminal as­pects of sharia law applicable.

He said that the “bill is not a regular bill that can be said to have passed second reading, passing it only meant it’s in the mill.

“All such bills are read and re­ferred to the House Special Ad-Hoc Committee on Constitution Review for Legislative fireworks”, and that “only the House Special Ad Hoc Committee on Constitu­tional Review can propose a final bill on constitutional review.”

“As it is, there is no proposed bill from the Ad Hoc committee yet. So the Bill in question is just a work­ing document. Those talking about sneaking a bill are either ignorant of the process or plainly mischie­vous.

“The Special Ad Hoc commit­tee is bound to consider it just like all other references to the Ad Hoc committee. In real sense it’s only when the said Ad Hoc committee proposes it to the House that we will have the bill to vote on.

 

“The Ad Hoc committee is free to recommend or reject it and where it rejects it the bill dies there and as such “it’s no use allowing debates on such bills that are for reference.”

He assured that the bill would be thoroughly debated and examined by in-house experts serving on the Special Ad Hoc Committee.

“If it passes the Ad Hoc commit­tee, it will now be debated by the House in plenary and be subjected to 2/3rd vote.

 

“In any case, recommendations from the public on constitutional amendment are accepted by the House without debate,” he said and advised those concerned to get a copy of the bill as it is a public ga­zetted document.