February 20, 2018

The Cross River House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the Not-Too-Young-to-Run Bill and the Bill to strengthen the judiciary for speedy dispensation of justice.
The House also passed the Bill for the funding of Houses of Assembly directly from the Consolidated Revenue Fund and Bill to change the name of the Nigerian Police Force to `Nigeria Police’.
It, however, voted against Independent Candidacy as canvassed in ongoing process to amend the 1999 Constitution.
At the plenary, the lawmakers considered 13 out of the 15 Bills transmitted to assembly by the National Assembly for the amendment of the Constitution.
The Bill for Local Government Autonomy and Bill to strengthen Local Government Administration in Nigeria were deferred to another plenary.
Speaker of the assembly, Mr John Gaul-Lebo, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) after the plenary that the House organised a public hearing where the 25 constituencies in the state made presentations on the amendments.
“The Cross River House of Assembly voted for 13 alterations out of the 15 transmitted to us by the National Assembly for our concurrent resolutions and transmission back to them.
“We deferred the Bill for Local Government Autonomy and the Bill to strengthen Local Government Administration in Nigeria to another legislative day. This is to help us do more consultations on the two bills.
“After the public hearing, we got memorandum from some groups and we felt we should give them fair hearing as it concerns primary school teachers’ salaries, primary healthcare and other local government issues.
“We voted overwhelmingly for 12 items while the Bill for Independent Candidacy was voted against. In all, we got 12 resolutions in support and one against.
“The Not-Too-Young-to-Run Bill will afford the young ones the opportunity to seek election in Nigeria,’’ he said.
Gaul-Lebo stated that the older generation had remained in power for too long, adding that the Bill sought to position the youths for future political leadership.
On Independent Candidacy, he said that Nigeria was not yet ripe for it as the nation lacked the institutional framework to manage the process.