PIB: APC Reps Okay 3% Equity Fund for Host Communities in Absence of Minority Members
It’s a nullity, says caucus
Members of the House of Representatives from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday in the absence of their opposition counterparts, passed the controversial three per cent equity shares for the oil producing communities in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).
Recall that lawmakers from the Niger Delta region protested the percentage, insisting on five per cent for host communities, which led to its postponement on Thursday.
At the yesterday special session, the APC lawmakers suddenly moved the motion after the opposition lawmakers staged a walkout to brief the press on their disagreement with the non-inclusion of the electronic transmission of election results in the electoral amendment bill. Speaking on the issue before the report was laid by the Committee Chairman, the Speaker, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila who explained that the House had suspended the laying of the report; so that the chairman of the PIB ad-hoc committee could go back and meet the Senate committee and let them review the position on the three per cent equity, regrets that by the time they got to the Senate, the committee had already made a decision and nothing else could have been done.
The Speaker while saying that the PIB would not suffer the same fate it had been suffering for the past 20 years assured that if there was any need in future, they could amend whatever there was to amend.
Gbajabiamila said, “Before he lays, I will like to lay the background for this laying of the PIB so that we will all be on the same page and understand what has happened; so that this House would not be accused of doing anything outside our rules. Thursday, there was an issue on PIB and in the wisdom of the leadership, suspended the laying of the report; asked the chairman to go back and meet the Senate committee and let them go and review the position. Unfortunately, by the time they got to the Senate committee, the Senate had already made a decision; they had already laid the report and adopted it.
“There is nothing else we could have done. Our House Rule now says that is what we have to look at. When they have agreed, which they have and there is nobody to talk to anymore, we have to come back and lay our own report, and the House will determine whether we are adopting or agreeing to that report. Otherwise, PIB will be handing inordinately.”