Fred Itua, Abuja 

The Senate, yesterday, initiated moves to reintroduce 304 bills passed by the eighth National Assembly and not assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Senate is expected to reach out to the House of Representatives on modalities to be adopted on the bills to ensure that, when reintroduced, they will not be subjected to public hearing.

The point was made during the consideration of a bill for an “Act to Repeal the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2004, and enact Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020.”

The 8th National Assembly passed over 400 bills, but more than 300 were not assented to by President Buhari. Though the two chambers mooted the idea of overriding the veto of the President, they, however, failed to go through with the threat.

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James Manager, while making his point, urged the Senate to save time and do the needful to also save cost in the course of reconsideration of the bills.

“We need to find a way to address this issue. I remember that in the last National Assembly, the President, Bukola Saraki, set up a committee to look at all the bills not assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The Senate Leader was a member of that committee. I think the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, needs to find a way to work this out. Let him talk to the Speaker of the House of Representatives on how they can work this out. We need to look at all the important bills that were rejected and look at the observations raised to enable us work on them and ensure that we represent them. This is the way to go,” Manager said.

Leader of the Senate, Abdullahi Yahaya, in his reaction, said: “The point made by James Manager is very valid. We need to appreciate it. He has made the job easier for us. We have already introduced steps to work on this. As I speak, we have identified about 304 bills that were not assented to by the President. The clerk of Judiciary Committee has compiled all the bills and has sent it to my office.”