House adopts constitution amendments from state assemblies

The House of Representatives on Wednesday, adopted 12 bills on amending the constitution as adopted by State Houses of Assembly and has forwarded the bills to President Muhammad Buhari for assent.

The bills include, granting financial autonomy to state legislatures, political parties and electoral matters as well as the determination of pre-election matters.

Others are, timeline for the presentation of appropriation bills, procedure for the overriding of presidential veto and authorization of expenditure in the absence of appropriation.

Presenting the bills, the Chairman House Committee on Constitutional Amendment and the Deputy Speaker, Yusuff Lasun said the that the 12 bills were adopted by more than 2\3  of the 35 of the 36 state Houses of Assembly that submitted their report.

He said that 33 bills seeking to alter various provisions of the 1999 Constitution were presented at the Senate and the House of Representatives on July 26 -27respectively.

The deputy speaker further said that the Senate had passed 29 bills with the required 2/3 majority of members while the House of Representatives passed 21 bills with the required 2/3 majority of the members.

The two chambers, he added, transmitted 15 of the bills passed without any difference to what the state Houses of Assembly passed while four of the bills passed with differences were committed to a conference committee for further legislative action.

Out of the 36 states in the nation, only Lagos state House of Assembly that did not send its report on the bills.