Senate Reviews CCB Act …Bill Passes Second Reading …Tasks FG On Chibok Girls’ Rescue

L-R: Director-General Oganiru Enugu State Investment Summit, Mr Ike Chioke, Chairman United Bank For Africa, Mr Tony Elumelu, Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu and Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, during the 2016 Oganiru Enugu State Investment Summit in Enugu onTuesday

The Senate, yesterday, passed for second reading, a bill seeking to amend the Act establishing the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and its tribunal.
Leading debate on the bill, which was read for the first time on Tuesday, the sponsor, Peter Nwaoboshi (PDP Delta-North), said that the amendment would redraft section 3(d) of the Act.
Nwaoboshi said that the procedural codes that were being employed by the bureau’s tribunal were not provided for in the nation’s Constitution.
Senators who contributed threw their weight behind the amendment of the Act. Sen. Dino Melaye (APC Kogi-West) said that the amendment was very apt as it had become clear that the CCT was delving into criminal trials.
Melaye urged all senators to support the amendment, stressing that it was justified. Other senators who contributed included Jubrin Barau (APC Kano North), Sam Anyanwu (PDP Imo East) and the Minority whip, Biodun Olujimi.
Olujimi said “we are licensed as senators to look at Acts and Laws to see how we can make them better: there is no doubt that this Act needs amendment.
“We do not want the Act to be used inconclusively; this is a straight forward thing, it should go to the committee and we conclude.’’
However, Sen. Yahaya Abdulahi (APC-Kebbi North) while supporting the amendment, expressed reservations over the timing in view of ongoing trial of the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki, at the CCT.
He said that although the amendment was apt, the perception of Nigerians, especially with regard to the timing should be taken into consideration.
“But for the credibility of this senate I think we should re-examine the timing of this,” he said.
In his remark Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, who presided at the plenary, said that the amendment had nothing to do with the trail of the President of the Senate at the CCT.
He said that Saraki’s trial had already started before the amendment bill was introduced, adding that they had no link.
“This bill will not affect the proceedings at the Code of Conduct Tribunal.
“We should not be afraid to do the job which the Constitution has given us.
“We support the CCB and the CCT but we must make sure that in doing their work, there must be fairness and respect for human rights.
“We must at all times be courageous to do our work,” he said.
The lawmakers voted for the passage of the bill for second reading and it was referred to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions and its Judiciary and Human Rights counterpart.
The committees were directed to submit their reports in two weeks The CCB amendment bill was laid on Tuesday alongside seven other bills among which is the amendment of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
Meanwhile, the Senate, yesterday, resolved to invite the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babagana Monguno and other security chiefs to brief it on their efforts to secure the release of the Chibok school girls.
The upper chamber also commended the Bring Back Our Girls group for their doggedness in the campaign for the release of the Chibok girls.
It asked security agencies to do everything humanly possible to ensure the release of the girls.
The resolutions followed the adoption of a motion by Senator Dino Melaye (Kogi West) and three others entitled “Abduction of Chibok school girls-two years after.”
The motion elicited angry reactions from Senators who felt that two years was long enough for the government to have recovered the school girls.
Senator Melaye lamented the plight of the girls and their parents.
He insisted that the Federal Government cannot be said to have succeeded until the girls are rescued.
He said: “We cannot succeed as a government until those girls are released. Getting back the over 200 Chibok school girls into the society is important and a must for our security agencies.
“The abduction of over 200 girls by Boko Haram has wrongly affected us as a people as could be seen in the international condemnation of the government’s slow reaction to this unprecedented outrage committed against Nigerian womanhood. Never before has such criminal viciousness been perpetrated on Nigerian womanhood.”
Melaye noted that yesterday “made it 730 days, 17520 hours and 1,051 minutes that our Chibok school girls have been under captivity. It will be recalled the night of 14-15 April, 2014, 276 girls were kidnapped from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, the responsibility for the abduction was claimed by Boko Haram. Luckily, 57 of the school girls managed to escape making 219 still missing.”
He said that outside propaganda videos created by the Islamist militant group, none of the girls has been seen and the families of the missing girls have been traumatized because of their daughters.
Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, in his contribution said that Melaye and some other members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) used the abduction of the Chibok school girls to win last year’s general elections.
Akpabio wondered why those who led protests against the government of former President Goodluck Jonathan to rescue the girls have suddenly kept mum.
He said, “I remember in 2014, Dino Melaye used to wear T-shirt and he led the protest to ensure that the abducted school girls were released.