The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Public hearing

  • Ikosi-Ejinrin council holds public hearing

    Ikosi-Ejinrin council holds public hearing

    The fifth Legislative House of Ikosi-Ejinrin Local Council Development Areas (LCDA), led by Hassan Mustapha Owolabi, will hold a public hearing on proposed bills for the formulation of new bye-laws.

    Tagged: Ikosi-Ejinrin LCDA byelaws 2024, the initiative aims to involve the public in the legislative process and ensure that the laws reflect the community’s needs and feedback.

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    At a press conference in the Council Legislative chamber in Agbowa, the Majority Leader and Chairman, Committee on Bye-Laws, Ganiyu Selim Oluwaseun, emphasized the significance of public participation in lawmaking.

    He said: “Lawmaking is essentially about the people. A law is as important as the people that will abide by it.

    “Hence, in making any law, we have to carry the people along, explain to them what we have in mind, what we have done so far, and what we intend to achieve while getting their inputs and feedback, which we will incorporate to guide the final outcome of the bill.

  • Minimum wage: Labour takes case to public hearing

    Labour was at the weekend busy mobilising its members to the public hearing being staged today by the House of Representatives on the National Minimum Wage Bill.

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba told reporters at the end of the Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting on Friday that Labour had mandated all its affiliates to mobilise en masse to attend the hearing to present their demand.

    Wabba said: “We have agreed to mobilise and engage on the issue, particularly at the level of the Nationalist Assembly and that the outcome of the negotiations be respected. We call on members of the National Assembly to do the needful.

    ”We have also put all our members on alert and if that is not done, we will mobilise to take appropriate action that is desirable to actually protect and ensure the sanctity of the minimum wage tripartite process. That has been the procedure from time past and inn tandem with the ILO provisions on minimum wage setting mechanism.

    “We have also agreed that in Monday, we will mobilise and attend the public hearing by the House of Representatives to make sure the right thing is done.

    “We call on all of them, being representatives of the people to respect the outcome of the tripartite negotiation process and importantly is the fact that when you look at N30, 000 in the context of today’s economy is a compromise position that ought to be commended.

    “Workers have been at the receiving end because when you put it side by side with the value of N18, 000 as far back as 2011 when the value was almost equivalent to 150 dollars. Today, even the N30, 000 is less than 100 dollars.

    ”We juxtapose all these arguments within the context of the reality on ground and therefore, we must demand that what was agreed mutually when all others have been put into consideration, including the ability to pay and all other factors, I think it should be respected as a tripartite process and a tripartite agreement.”

    The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has mobilised its members to attend the public hearing saying it was in support of the decision by the NLC leadership.

    Rising from its National Executive Council meeting, the union said going contrary to the recommended N30, 000 new minimum wage portends serious industrial disharmony which would have dire consequences for the general elections.

    Other unions have mobilised to storm the public hearing to restate their position and insist on N30, 000 as agreed to by the tripartite committee, especially against the backdrop of a retraction by the Labour and Employment Minister Chris Ngige that the N27,000 contained in the bill submitted to the National Assembly was for all category of workers.

    The minister had earlier told newsmen that while N27, 000 was to be paid by state government end the public sector, the Federal Government will pay its workers N30, 000.

    But in a statement signed by the Assistant Director in the Labour Ministry Illiya Rhoda on Friday, the minister said all categories of workers are to earn the N27, 000 while those who can afford more should negotiate with their workers.

    A peep into the minimum wage bill sent to the National Assembly revealed that there was no mention of N30, 000 in the bill.

    Ngige had urged those dissatisfied with the N27, 000 to argue their case before the public hearing scheduled for today by the House of Representatives.

    The minister said: “As the matter of a National Minimum Wage is in the Exclusive Legislative List as item No. 34 of the Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), it is therefore the Executive arm of Government that has the responsibility to prescribe a new National Minimum Wage and send to the National Assembly (NASS) for legislative action of getting the Bill passed and/or amended and reverting same to Mr. President for Assent like any other law of the nation.

    “It is important therefore, to use this medium to ask the different groups who have interest agreeing or disagreeing on the contents of the 2019 National Minimum Wage Bill already transmitted to NASS, to get ready to make their views known at the Public Hearing.

    “We wish the Nigerian workers well and thank the NASS for expeditiously treating the bill by letting it pass the first and second readings in one legislative day and also in setting up an urgent and ad hoc Committee to treat this matter in both Chambers very swiftly”.

  • Council holds public hearing

    The Legislative House of Somolu Local Government Area of Lagos has held a public hearing on Collectible Revenue items and Rates/Tariffs, Indiscriminate/ Double parking on streets, Regulation and control of registration and re-naming of streets and Environmental sanitation bills.

    The House Leader, Yomi Osunkoya in his remark, said it was crucial to ensure reform of those bills.

    He urged participants to give their best and candid advice.

    According to him, the administration remains committed to providing the necessary legislative support to aid infrastructure on which a new and virile Somolu economy could be built.

    Osunkoya said: “All the rates and levies been collected by this council are expedient to our community development and also major determinant of success and growth of this community to conform to 21st century growth.

    “The existing Bye-Law has withered as development crawls in and we all crave for major development which without adequate funds, it’s absolutely impossible; however to propel development and other infrastructural things of value and foster in millennium growth, hence this gathering.”

    The proposed bill, he opined, will usher in a new era of growth and enablement for all to participate more robustly and directly while ensuring efficiency and sustainability.

  • Council holds public hearing

    The Legislative House of Somolu Local Government Area of Lagos yesterday held a public hearing on Collectible Revenue items and Rates/Tariffs, Indiscriminate/ Double parking on streets, Regulation and control of registration and re-naming of streets and Environmental sanitation bills.

    The House Leader, Yomi Osunkoya in his remark, said it was crucial to ensure reform of those bills.

    He urged participants to give their best and candid advice.

    According to him, the administration remains committed to providing the necessary legislative support to aid infrastructure on which a new and virile Somolu economy could be built.

    Osunkoya said: “All the rates and levies been collected by this council are expedient to our community development and also major determinant of success and growth of this community to conform to 21st-century growth.

    Read also: Clearing agents, dock workers, others mull protest

    “The existing Bye-Law has withered as development crawls in and we all crave for major development which without adequate funds, it’s absolutely impossible; however to propel development and other infrastructural things of value and foster in millennium growth, hence this gathering.”

    The proposed bill, he opined, will usher in a new era of growth and enablement for all to participate more robustly and directly while ensuring efficiency and sustainability.

    called on the inductees to diversify either horizontal or vertical, adding that diversification was the new dictate of the modern economy.

     

  • SARS reform public hearing ends in Lagos

    The Presidential Panel on SARS Reform, which began its public hearing in Lagos on Tuesday, November 13, ended its sitting yesterday after listening to 36 cases.

    According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the five-day public hearing had some cases successfully resolved, while one was dismissed as complainants refused to show up.

    Some other cases were adjourned for panel’s decision and the rest reported to have been settled by necessary authorities.

    The public hearing, organised by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), came to an end after evaluating the inadequacies of the police as well as members of the public.

    The panel revealed that failure of some complainants to report as well as bad timing of report of some incidents were challenges in resolving some issues.

    Most of the cases listened to by the panel exposed the failure of SARS to follow due process in discharging their duties.

    According to the Chairman of the Panel, Mr Tony Ojukwu, there are some cases which ordinarily should not be the business of SARS.

    He cited such instances to include a case where a SARS official was assigned to handle a matter bordering on debt between two parties.

    “This is a matter that a policeman can handle in any police station, not SARS. So, when you are called upon that a bank robbery is ongoing, you will say you are taking statements from market women,” he said.

    The Chairman also addressed the issue of SARS official covering name tags while on illegal duties and questioned why policemen would not register their presence at the nearest police station so as to check issues of illegal duty shifts.

    On a case bordering on extra judicial killing, Ojukwu questioned policemen on why they would carry out coroner inquest on a body without informing relatives of the deceased.

    “If you have invited a pathologist to carry out autopsy on a body without a relation to identify the body, how are we so sure you have the right body?

    “There is need to always do the right thing. You should have in mind that there will always be a day of account. All of these have to stop.

    “Some of the reasons we face these inadequacies of the police is because people do not report, as they are not sure if any action will be taken.

    “This is why impunity continues. Our people are docile and they don’t fight for their rights, because if an officer knows that someone will hold him accountable for his actions, he will do what is right.

    “I know that recommendations of this panel will put things in order, but I hope we don’t degenerate into looking for other ways to evade being held accountable for our wrongs,” he said.

    Ojukwu, however, commended the policemen that accepted their wrongs, saying that it is when policemen try to outsmart the panel that cases keep taking time to resolve.

    The panel is proceeding to Owerri for the joint Southeast and Southsouth Zone public hearing.

  • Amuwo-Odofin to hold public hearing on good governance July 4

    The Legislative Council of Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State will hold a public hearing on bills for law to enhance effective governance on July 4.

    House Leader Abimbola Oshodi told reporters that the public hearing would regulate the activities of bus shuttles, tricycles and other means of transportation, blocked waterways and closed gates, address insecurity, effective regulation on automobile dealers and welfare package of monthly stipends to elderly people.

    Others are: proscription of cart pushers, street trading and many more, safety of passengers and goods on waterways, abandoned vehicles and dangers they pose to the community and bursary awards.

    He said: “The public hearing will hold on July 4 at the local government’s secretariat in Festac Town, Lagos. We also expect stakeholders from all walks of life to be part of this epoch-making deliberation.”

    The local government leader and other members of the council urged stakeholders and other residents to attend the hearing.

    They added that important deliberations would be taken at the event.

  • Reps hold public hearing on immunity clause, state flags

    Reps hold public hearing on immunity clause, state flags

    Should lawmakers enjoy immunity in the hallowed chamber?

    That was the subject of debate at a public hearing in the House of Representatives at the weekend.

    Two other controversial Bills were also debated. They are whether to approve state-owned flags to fly side-by-side with the national flag and whether to legalise lobbyists in the National Assembly.

    The Chairman, House Committee on Justice, Ali Ahmad, who noted that the bills had serious legal implications, however, warned that they had to be treated with utmost caution.

    According to him, the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act was enacted before independence and overdue for review, “The bill is at the core of the internal workings of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly.

    “The immunity provided for in the bill is not to be misconstrued as it is only to give immunity to members of the National Assembly against prosecution for words spoken on the floor of the House or at committees.

    “This is a global practice adopted to allow legislators exercise their freedom of debate without fear of prosecution”.

    On the Lobbyist bill, the lawmaker said that it has the potential of impacting positively on the internal workings of the National Assembly.

    “It is all about legislative process and we as legislators cannot be judges in our matter. We have to be extremely careful with the bill because lobbying is an integral part of our nation’s democratic process.

    “If the Bill is passed, it would regulate the activities of lobbyists in the country and stop abuses of the profession,” he added.

    On the Symbols Act, Ahmad noted that it had generated controversies over whether states should be allowed to maintain symbols distinct or coexisting with other national symbols without offending the spirit and letters of federalism or of the Constitution.

    Further discourse on the Symbols Act was, however, put on hold due to a court action pending at a Federal High Court in Lagos against the House of Representatives in the portion of the Bill related to the National Anthem.

  • Oyerinde: Falana, others to storm public hearing

    Oyerinde: Falana, others to storm public hearing

    Human right activist, Femi Falana, will on Wednesday lead the Civil Society Organisation to the Public Hearing of the House of Representative on the murder of Private Secretary to Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, Comrade Olaitan Oyerinde.

    Comrade Oyerinde was murdered at his Benin City residence on May 4 last year by unknown gunmen.

    The Public Hearing by the House of Representatives is sequel to a petition filed by the Conference of Non -Government Organisation of Nigeria (CONGOS).

    Falana is the legal counsel to the civil society organisation.

    Also, the President of Trade Union Congress, Comrade Peter Esele will lead some union leadership to attend the hearing.

    The TUC at its National Executive Council meeting in Benin City last weekend called for a probe into the murder of Oyerinde and frowned at the role played by the Nigerian Police in the course of investigating the murder.

    The Executive Director of African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, Rev. David Ugolor confirmed the decision of Falana and Comrade Esele to attend the public hearing.

    Ugolor, who was arrested and detained for 48 days over alleged involvement in the murder challenged the police authorities to produce the video clips of the cross examination of Garuba Maisamari, the suspect that fingered him as the mastermind of the murder.

    Rev. Ugolor alleged that investigation by him revealed that the police tortured and shot Maisamari and Moses Okoro three times before they implicated him in the murder.