The Sun News On-line

The House of Representatives again hid under the cover of absence of the sponsor of the Freedom of Information Bill, Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa, to push forward the consideration of the committe’s report on the Bill.
Daily Sun, however, gathered that deferring the report for debate was another ploy by the leadership of the House to bury it eventually.

Mrs Dabiri-Erewa, representing Ikorodu Federal Constituency of Lagos State, is out of the country for an international conference approved by the Speaker, Hon Dimeji Bankole.
According to a lawmaker, “listing the report for debate was another ploy of a gradual process of killing the Bill. You know what? The leadership knew that there was no way the House will commence debate on any report of Bill or a motion when the mover or the sponsor is not around.

“Why should they list the report when the same people approved that sponsor of the bill travelled out of the country?”
The member, who craved for anonymity, dismissed the argument of the chairman, Rules and Business Committee, Hon James Solomon Ita Enang, that Speaker’s promise, in Lagos last week, made the committee to list the debate for Wednesday.
He said: “On Monday, this report appeared on the Notice Paper for the week. We decided to include it because the Speaker made a promise at the Town Hall meeting in Lagos that the FOIB will be considered this week.

“We duly informed the movers that the Bill will be taken and that they should be present. I urged the House to step it down for another day.”
Deputy Speaker Bayero Nafada, who presided over the plenary session, had called on the sponsors of the Bill to move for the presentation of the report so that the House would dissolve into the Committee of the Whole.

When he discovered that Hon Dabiri – Erewa was not around he said: “How can we take the report when the chief mover is not around to lead the debate and answer questions that may arise? I think we should stand the report down.”
Reacting to the decision of the House, from the venue of the international conference in the United States, Hon Dabiri-Erewa expressed shock that the FOIB report was listed for debate in Wednesday Order Paper.

According to her, the leadership of the House knew about the trip to America, hence, she did not expect that the bill would be listed for debate.
“I told them that I am out of the country for a conference, at which I am to present a paper. I told them not to list it. They are aware,” she said on telephone.