President Muhammadu Buhari has turned down assent to four bills recently passed into law by the National Assembly.
The bills are the Corporate Manslaughter Bill of 2018; the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Skill Fund Amendment Bill of 2018; NCPEA (Child Protection and Empowerment) Amendment Bill 2018 and the Courts and Tribunals Standard Scale of Fines Bill of 2017.
Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, who read the letter from the President at Thursday’s plenary, said Buhari justified his decision to withhold presidential assents to the bills on inconsistencies.
On the Corporate Manslaughter Bill of 2018, the President adduced that the provision of Section 39 which presumes an individual innocent until proven guilty in a competent court of law was contravened by the bill, adding that it might be useful for the bill to cover penalties to be imposed for the specific offenses.
On the second bill, the President also stated that the amount proposed in the fund size would not be effective due to the fact that it retained the original fund size.
He also withheld his signature to the third bill due to the fact that the proposed roles were being carried out by the Ministry of Women Affairs.
On the fourth bill, entitled “Courts and Tribunals Standard Scale of Fines Bill of 2017,” the President stated that the proposed fines seemed to be ambiguous and did not specify scales of offenses and fines as the Naira has a dynamic characteristic, hence the fixed scale may later not be practical.
