The House of Representatives Committee on Ports, Harbour and Waterways has called for an urgent review of the Federal Government’s automotive policy to stop the smuggling of cars to the country.
The Chairman of the committee, Dr Pat Asadu, made the call in an interview with The Tide source on Monday in Abuja on the sidelines of a two-day retreat organised by the committee in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
Asadu said the committee would work closely with 360 members of the lower legislative chamber to come up with a vibrant automotive policy.
“I think the automotive policy needs urgent review and we are in a position not just as this committee but we are working with 360 members in the house cutting across every part of this country.
“So we are going to take back our feelings and our findings and we hope to establish a portal where more reactions to some of these outcomes of these retreats will be fed into us by the public.’’
According to him, the house will amend all the functions of the regulatory agencies to avoid conflicting roles on the part of government agencies.
“That is essentially what amendment is meant to achieve; to harmonise roles and responsibilities, as well as remove conflicts where they exist.
“The public hearing that is coming up is meant for us to properly organise engagements for instance, to say Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency should do this and the National Inland Waterways Authority or Council should do that.
“Those who want council to do it, you know that as from today you do not need to go and start making trouble in the other place.
“When those laws were made, I do not think every stakeholder was there in the second law and engagements were not all that robust.
“There was always going to be a gap between those making laws and those who the laws are meant for; but now we’ve started from outside, picking what the problems are.
“So we will sit down as parliament and look at the issues, so I think it will be sorted out,” he said.