Dogara reveals when NASS will pass 2018 Budget as House begins ‘override’ of Buhari’s vetoes

House of Representatives Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, Wednesday hinted at when the 2018 Appropriations Bill would be passed into law by the National Assembly.

The speaker mentioned April 24, 2018 as the likely date for passage of the budget.

The budget has not been passed despite the fact that President Muhammadu Buhari had on November 7, 2017 laid the document before a joint session of the two chambers of the National Assembly.

But on Wednesday at the plenary of the House, Dogara in an announcement given to him by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Yusuf Lasun, said that a coordinated committee of both chambers had proposed to lay the budget on April 19, 2018 to pave way for its passage on April 24, 2018.

“We are proposing that we are laying the budget finally on the 19th of April 2018, hopefully we will be passing the budget on 24 April, 2018. This is harmonised calendar with the Senate,” Dogara said.

As earlier threatened by the House, the lawmakers on Wednesday kick-started what could be likened to override of the presidential veto of two bills of the National Assembly rejected by President Buhari, as the two bills were relisted on Wednesday Order Paper.

Read also: 2018 BUDGET: Saraki issues deadline to senators

Titled, “Nigeria Peace Corps Bill HB 89” and “Electoral Act Amendment Bill HB 966”, the bills scaled first reading at plenary.

Buhari had recently refused assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill and the Nigeria Peace Corps Bill.

But the House Spokesman, Abdulrazak Namdas, had told journalists last week that the House would start the override process soon.

 

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