House Gives Nod to Local Government Autonomy as it Withdraws Immunity on President The House of Representatives yesterday made history by joining the senate in reviewing the Constitution of the nation. The process which was earlier scheduled to take place on Tuesday was delayed for 24hrs due to technical hitches in its electronic voting system. However, on Wednesday, voting was delayed as members encountered challenges with the voting system upon three trials, which then led the house into considering a reversion to manual voting following the failure of the electronic voting system. In preparation for manual voting, the Speaker urged the State reps to approach the Clerk of the House for the ballots which was designed in a way that captures the following data; name, state, constituency and signature. All 85 clauses voted by the House of Reps members met the required number of votes needed for a clause to be passed in the Constitution review process. Among the clauses passed includes; * Autonomy for Local Government * Amendment to mainstream independent candidacy * The retention of labour on the exclusive legislative list * Amendment to remove immunity from criminal proceedings currently being enjoyed by the President * Amendment to establish an Electoral Offences Commission * Amendment to make the right to education, environment, health and housing a Fundamental human right * Amendment to remove the "force" from the Nigerian Police Force as it will now read Nigerian Police * Grants traditional institutions constitutional recognition On immunity, the new provision implies that the President, Vice-President, governors and their deputies will vacate office, if convicted of any criminal offence. According to our source, it took the House of Representatives 12 hours to conclude voting on constitutional amendments as only 339 members were duly registered to vote.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 12:04:35 +0000
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