Two weeks after the Rivers State House of Assembly held plenary in
Government House, Port Harcourt, to pass the 2014 budget, the lawmakers
have resumed sitting at the same venue.
The House had during their first sitting in Government House designated
the old Banquet Hall of the State Government House as a temporary chamber for
them to meet.
Though, members had maintained that they had to relocate as a result of
the ongoing renovation work at the Assembly Complex, the sealing of the complex
by the police had also forced them to hold plenary elsewhere.
Seventeen out of the 25 members were present at the sitting presided
over by the Speaker, Mr. Otelemaba Dan-Amachree.
Members of the House, however, considered three bills, including the
Rivers State Waste Management Bill, which went through the first reading.
Dan-Amachree explained that the bill, when passed into law, would
substitute the law establishing the Rivers State Environmental Sanitation
Authority.
The two other bills, which also went through the first reading, were
Rivers State Taxes and Levies Harmonisation Bill 2013 and the Rivers State
Customary Court Bill 2013.
On the absence of some members at the Thursday’s sitting, the Speaker
pointed out that those absent asked to be excused from the day’s exercise.
Dan-Amachree said that the three bills would have been passed into law
in 2013, adding that the political crisis in the state had delayed deliberation
on the bills.
The pro-Amaechi lawmakers absent at the sitting were the Leader of the
House, Chidi Lloyd, whose absence was due to ill health; the member
representing Okrika Constituency, Belema Okpokiri; the member representing
Ikwerre Constituency, Azubuike Wanjoku; the member representing Akuku-Toru 1
Constituency, Onari Brown; and the member representing Akuku-Toru II
Constituency, Frederick Anabraba.
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Politics