House Minority Caucus Walks Out of Plenary over Tinubu’s State Police Bill

• 311 lawmakers vote in favour of amendment

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

The Minority Caucus of the House of Representatives, yesterday, staged a walkout from plenary in protest against the passage of the constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish State Police Services.

They alleged that the House leadership violated provisions of the 1999 Constitution and the Standing Orders of the chamber.

The lawmakers, who clarified that their action was not motivated by opposition to the creation of state police, protested a disregard for established parliamentary procedures in the consideration and passage of constitutional amendment legislation.

Speaking to journalists after the walkout, Minority Leader, Fredrick Agbedi, flanked by other leaders of the caucus, said the Speaker, Abbas Tajudeen, while presiding over the Committee of the Whole, failed to comply with constitutional provisions guiding the alteration of the nation’s Constitution.

 Agbedi argued that the attendance of lawmakers in the chamber was established through the registers signed by members on each legislative day, rather than through the reading of lawmakers’ names during proceedings.

He said, “The Constitution is the grund norm. It is the rule book from which even our Standing Orders derive their powers. For the Speaker, acting as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, to disregard the clear provisions of Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, is a great affront to the workings of the House of Representatives.”

The Minority Caucus maintained that every constitutional amendment bill must undergo clause-by-clause consideration, with each individual provision receiving the support of a two-thirds majority of the House, as required by the Constitution and the chamber’s Standing Orders.

The lawmakers cited Order 13 Rule 15(a) of the House Rules, which provided that during clause-by-clause consideration in the Committee of the Whole, a clause could only be regarded as passed if it received a positive vote from two-thirds of the members of the House.

They therefore criticised the procedure adopted for the state police bill, alleging that the House leadership only read the long title of the proposed legislation before putting it to a voice vote without subjecting its individual clauses to detailed consideration.

The caucus stressed that it was not opposed to the establishment of state police, noting that it would support any measure capable of helping to tackle insecurity across the country.

However, the lawmakers insisted that every legislative action, particularly one involving constitutional amendment, must strictly follow due process.

According to the Minority lawmakers, they had previously met with the Speaker to discuss proposed amendments to the bill, during which, they said, the Speaker acknowledged that there were areas where the opposition could seek changes.

The caucus said the speaker, however, failed to allow the proposed interventions when he presided over the Committee of the Whole, instead reading only the long title of the bill before subjecting it to a voice vote.

“Mr. Speaker even identified areas where we could intervene, but when he sat as Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, he simply read the long title and put the question through a voice vote. That is absurd,” the lawmakers said.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 311 members of the House of Representatives voted in favour of the executive bill seeking to establish State Police Services.

The speaker disclosed that 35 lawmakers participated in the voting virtually, while 276 members were physically present in the chamber.

The vote followed the consideration and adoption of the report of the House Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, during plenary.

The bill is titled, “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to Provide for the Establishment of State Police Services and for Related Matters (HB. 2797).”