A bill to give immunity to members of the legislature in Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday passed its second reading at the House of Representatives. The bill seeks to amend Section 4(8) of the 1999 Constitution as amended by providing immunity for members of both Federal and State legislatures in respect of the words spoken or written at plenary sessions and committees proceedings.
Rep. Ali Ahmed ( PDP-Kwara) said the intent of the proposed amendment was to alter the provisions of Section 4(8) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended)
The section stipulates that the jurisdiction of the courts cannot be ousted by the actions or proceedings of the parliaments.
He said the essence of the amendment was to ensure that lawmakers were not held liable or subjected to civil or criminal actions based on their utterance or decisions taken.
In his submission, Rep. Raphael Igbokwe (PDP-Imo), said that granting of immunity to lawmakers would strengthen democracy and allow members to speak freely without fear of molestation or litigation.
He said: ``if the immunity is granted, it will not be alien to Nigeria as even established democracies such as US and other African countries have entrenched it in their constitutions.’’
The countries in which lawmakers enjoy immunity, according to Igbokwe, include Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Ghana, Tanzania, among others.
Igbokwe said legislators deserved protection as it was the practice universally to exercise their legislative powers without fear or favour.
According to him, with the immunity, the lawmakers will take on issues frontally.
He drew the attention of others to historical decisions taken by the house in the past such as the doctrine of necessity that brought in Goodluck Jonathan, as acting president in February 2010.
According to him, another historic decision is the recent passage of an amendment bill to increase the number of appeal court judges to 100.
Rep. Zakari Mohammed ( PDP-Kwara) explained that the immunity the legislature was looking for was different from the one being enjoyed by the president and governors.
He said the immunity the house was seeking was only for what transpired on the floor so that no member could be held responsible for his actions or words on the floor of the chambers.
Zakari said that the bill when passed into law would enhanced the free-flow of debate in the parliament.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Add A Comment