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JUST IN: Petroleum Industry Bill 2020 Scales First Reading In Senate

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Lawan Lists 9th Assembly Achievements Amid Tussle For 10th NASS Leadership

The Petroleum Industry Bill 2020 has reportedly scaled through first reading on the floor of the Nigeria Senate during plenary today.

According to the report reaching Naija News on Wednesday, September 30, the leader of the Senate, Yahaya Abdullahi, presented the proposed PIB bill before today at the plenary while Ahmad Lawan, the President of the Senate read the bill for the first time.

Naija News recalls that the senate president in 2019 lamented that the bill had stayed too long in the National Assembly since its introduction and that the delay in concluding works on it was affecting the petroleum sector.

Lawan stated this in September 2019 at the plenary during the inauguration of the 70 Standing Committees of the Senate.

However, the leadership of the National Assembly on Monday, September 28, 2020, pledged to accelerate legislative action on the Petroleum Industry Bill submitted by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), two weeks ago.

The federal parliament, in after deliberations vowed to ensure thoroughness in its consideration, which according to the principal officers, would be treated simultaneously with the 2021 national budget. President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, made this declaration during a National Assembly joint leadership meeting on the PIB, with the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timpre Sylva, Naija News understands.

Lawan during the meeting, acknowledged the receipt of the document at the assembly two weeks ago, adding that the details of its contents would be read at plenary today (Tuesday).

He assured that both chambers would forward the documents to their respective committees for further legislative actions as soon as Buhari’s covering letter, which accompanied the bill, was read to the lawmakers.

Also in attendance at the meeting is the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, and other heads of the NNPC subsidiaries.