The Senate on Tuesday refuted allegations by the House of Representatives that it had consistently delayed concurrence on most legislative initiatives originating from the lower chamber.
The upper chamber also said it would never joke with any legislative initiative or request from the House of Representatives, revealing that the Senate considered at least six of such concurrence bills just last week.
The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio and Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, made these clarifications during the plenary in the Senate Chamber on Tuesday.
The House of Representatives had resolved to suspend further consideration of bills originating from the Senate, citing persistent delays in the red chamber’s concurrence to House-passed legislation.
The lower chamber had further accused the Senate of deliberately stalling the legislative process, citing its failure to act on over 140 bills passed by the House of Representatives, many of which were sponsored by its Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas.
At the plenary on Tuesday, both Akpabio and Bamidele, however, rejected the claims of the House of Representatives, revealing that the Senate considered at least six concurrence bills that emanated from the green chamber in the immediate past week.
Akpabio specifically said the upper chamber “cannot joke with concurrence bills from the House of Representatives,” saying the Senate would continue to work, as effectively as possible, with lawmakers in the green chamber.
The Senate President said: “It takes two hands to clap. We have been attending to the bills from the House of Representatives. We are still going to attend to them. And we will continue to work together in the interest of Nigeria and Nigerians.”
While presenting one of the bills from the House of Representatives at the plenary on Tuesday, Bamidele said the first two businesses of the day “are concurrence bills from the House of Representatives.”
Bamidele further said: “Only last week, the Senate concurred to six bills from the House of Representatives. We know we have the principle of reciprocity that governs our operations. But this does not necessarily mean garbage in, garbage out.
“We have the duty, as the foremost democratic institution in the country, to exercise due diligence on the bills. We will continue to consider concurrence bills from the House of Representatives the same way they considered our own bills.
“We will ensure that it is given attention in overriding public interest.”
Debunking the allegations, Bamidele added, “I just want to say this for the record. We have been attending to these concurrence bills from the House of Representatives.
“We will continue to do what we are supposed to do consistent with our mandates under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”
