The House of Representatives Thursday said there is no Sharia Bill before it and that contrary to the general uproar on the proposed legislation, no such bill has passed second reading on the floor of Green Chamber.
Speaking on the controversial issue Thursday, the Chairman of the House Commttee on Media and Public Affair, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas said there is the need for him to clarify the issue because of the numerous inquiries from reporters and members of the public.
“On this issue of the proposal people are calling the Sharia Bill, a lot of people came to my office today. I want to make clarifications.
“Please gentlemen, we don’t have a bill in the House of Representatives called the Sharia Bill. What we have is that a member on the floor of the House made a proposal to amend the constitution and this was referred to the Special committee on Constitution Review of which I’m a member.
“Now, it actually talks about trying to amend a certain section of the Sharia. As it is, its been referred to a committee. And if the committee decides that this is not worth a bill, it will not even come back to the House.
“Once the committee decides on it that it is, it will come on the floor of the House as a bill. And it’s at that time that we will now say there is a bill before the House, which will require a vote of two-third, not only here but all the State Houses of Assembly.
“So it’s not correct to say that a sharia bill has passed second reading in the House of Representatives. It has not. It is a proposal seeking to amend the criminal aspect of the Sharia law, it can only be done through constitution amendment”.
The lawmaker said there are lots of constitution amendment proposals before the special committee and the committee is working in them, adding that at the appropriate time, the fate of the controversial proposal will be made known to the public though the media.
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