Reps carry over 499 untreated bills to 2017

The House of Representatives moved into 2017 with a backlog of 499 bills still far from hitting the third reading mark, The PUNCH learnt on Sunday.

The bills were among the total of 551 introduced to the House for the first time in 2016, a development indicating the zeal of lawmakers to increase the bills traffic in the House.

Over 100 of the bills were presented on June 8 alone, dealing with obsolete laws, which required to be reviewed.

However, after the first reading of the majority of the bills, they were not successfully passed, leaving the 499 at various stages of progression.

Findings by The PUNCH showed that at least 256 of the bills got stuck after the first reading.

“The implication is that these bills have not been listed for debate on the general principles to pass for second reading.

“It also means that they have yet to reach the critical committee stage, much less third reading and final passage,” a senior National Assembly official told The PUNCH in Abuja on Sunday.

Punch, January 2, 2017

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