‘Akwa Ibom assembly passed 19 bills in 2 years’

The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly said it has passed 19 bills into law out of 52 bills sponsored in two years of the 7th Assembly’s existence.

Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Hon. Aniefiok Akpan, stated this on Monday while giving a summary of the achievements of the assembly in Uyo.

• Asari Dokubo: What Fani-Kayode said when Nnamdi Kanu sent him to me
• Stepping on Kwankwaso’s poster not intentional – Ganduje

Akpan, who said the assembly concentrated on making laws that are beneficial to the people, stated that the members were interested in ensuring that the bills were assented to by the governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel.

He explained that the assembly had liaised with the Attorney General to fine-tune the bills they have passed into laws so that they get the assent of the governor.

He stated that the idea was to make sure the bills passed don’t get rejected by the governor because of their shortcomings.

“In terms of law-making at various stages, we have sponsored 52 bills, some of them have passed 3rd reading and some of them have been assented to.

“We move not just motions, but people-oriented motions that have to do with the people.

“Like the desk management bill that was assented to, we don’t want a situation whereby the Executive will on their own have control, we want the public to have a say, the CLO will have a say, amongst others.

“Public procurement bill was also passed into law.

“Now, there must be bidding, not just one person coming to take a job, there must be local content as far as the law is concerned.

“If there is a job that can be appropriately handled by our people, there is no need to bring someone from outside to do it.

“The violence against persons law has been assented to by His Excellency. Unfortunately, during the lockdown, we had a lot of rape-related issues, gender issues concerning the girl child and women generally.

“The law used to be violence against women but it is now violence against persons because women attack men and men attack women. That is one law in terms of the definition of rape that has been expanded,” he stated.

Akpan reiterated that the assembly was committed to a legislative agenda that is focused on the people, adding that the House had been repelling or amending obsolete laws where necessary to make them align with current realities.