The House of Representatives on Thursday commenced consideration of report of the special ad hoc Committee on the review of the 1999 constitution amidst rowdiness.
The amendment bill containing 32 alterations was laid before the House by the Chairman of the Ad hoc committee, Rep. Yussuff Lasun on July 20.
The House however, was thrown into a rowdy session following a point of order raised by Rep. Mojeed Alabi (Osun-APC).
Citing order 9 Rule 2(1) of the standing order, Alabi said that the House should debate the clauses contained in the document before voting.
He argued that proceeding with voting without debating the clauses would violate order 13 rule 1(2) of the House Standing order.
The Speaker, Yakubu Dogara however, ruled him out of order saying that the house had already debated the clauses before sending the bill to the ad hoc committee.
The speaker urged lawmakers to come up with amendments in sections they deemed necessary.
Alabi, who was not satisfied with the position of the speaker continued to raise a point of order while some other lawmakers formed clusters over the matter.
Some lawmakers prevailed on the situation as they tried to calm Alabi down.
Meanwhile, normalcy later returned after 30 minutes of persuasion.
The House rejected the devolution of power to the states, the separatrion of the office of the Attorney-General from that of Justice minister, womens’s indigeneship right, and the plan to ensure the appointment of only indigenes as Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister.
Yesterday, the House took votes on 22 of the 33 items listed for amendments in the constitution.
Deputy Speaker Lasun Yussuff, who heads the Constitution Review Committee said 32 alterations were treated by the Committee.
The move to put former Senate presidents and ex-speakers of the House of Representatives in the Council of State passed with 294 votes.
The threshold is 240 votes to pass any item.
Also the reduction of Authorisation of Expenditure of the President from six months to three months in case of non- passage of budget” was approved with 295 votes, but efforts to ensure that a minister emerges from the Federal Capital Territory was defeated as it could only rake up 191 votes.
The 35 per cent affirmative action was also passed alongside timeline for submission of nominees for Ministers/ Commissioners with portfolio attachment with a vote of 248 against the 46 and one abstaining.
The removal of the nomenclature “Force” from the Nigeria Police Force was effected with 280 votes as opposed to nine against and four abstaining.
Also, a bill seeking to make provisions for pre- election matters and the time for the determination of pre-election disputes passed with 288 votes. Three were against and one abstained.
Though the House agreed to give the Auditor- General independence with 289 votes, the attempt to separate the office of the Attorney General from the Minister of Justice was defeated as it only garnered 234 votes.
The House approved the power of the National Assembly to override the President on Constitutional Amendment should he withhold assent with a vote of 248 and a negative of 28 and four abstaining.
The lawmakers rejected devolution of power to decongest the Exclusive list, legislative list by transferring certain items contained to the concurrent list, thereby enabling the states to make laws in respect of those items passed with 210 votes which was less than the required 240 votes, and rejected State Creation and boundary adjustment.
It, however, passed the age reduction bill ( popularly known as Not too young to run,” Bill after spirited appeal for the Majority Leader Femi Gbajabiamila and the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, passed with 261 votes, 23 against and 2 lawmakers abstaining.
