WE ARE NOT SLEEPING, SHARIA LAW CAN NEVER BE PASSED IN HOUSE OF REP

The South- East Caucus of the House of Representatives has  rejected introduction of Sharia in the Constitution.

Chairman of the caucus and Deputy Minority Leader, Chukwuka Onyema told National Assembly Correspondents a good number of ranking members from the zone understand that all bills seeking an amendment of the constitution “shall be passed for second  reading” and refferred to the Adhoc Committee on Constitution, it would be wrong to say they were caught unawares.

He assured that there was no cause for alarm as a public hearing with conducted on the bill saying, “Any matter on constitutional amendment is passed for second reading and sent to the constitutional review committee.

“ I can use the word ‘shall’, that  such a bill shall be passed for second reading and sent to the committee, who will now look at it to see if should be presented  for debate.

“We have experienced lawmakers in the South-East Caucus who are waiting for when this bill will be debated.

“ We are not sleeping. We are committed to working for their people and this is seen in our contributions on the floor as well as in various committees, along with oversight functions”, he added.

On the President Buhari’s request to the National Assembly for approval of a $29.9 billion external borrowing plan,  the caucus described as “unacceptable,” exclusion of the zone in the allocation of projects by the Federal Government in the proposed plan.

On Thursday, Daily Sun exclusively reported the decision of the caucus to vote against the plan due to the zone not listed for capital projects.  The lawmakers said that they will only support a borrowing plan that is inclusive of all geo-political zones. This was even as they complained that details of the terms of the loans, duration, cost and application have not been made provided.

Speaking on the state of the economy the lawmakers said they “recognise that, as our country goes through an economic recession which has resulted in the loss of jobs, decreased spending, prevalence of hunger and uncertainty in the polity, we stand with our fellow Nigerians in this difficult period. We urge the executive to speedily formulate fiscal and economic policies that will see an end to the present economic downturn.  Vide a joint resolution of both Houses of the National Assembly urging the President to engage with the legislature on the true state of our economy and his roadmap to economic recovery, the urgency cannot be overstated at this time