Senate yesterday passed the Bill seeking to cede the sum of $1 billion from the federal government share of Excess Crude revenue for the immediate completion of the Ajaokuta Steel Company.
The upper legislative chamber also included in the passed bill, that all monies that may from time to time be appropriated and authorized by any tier of government should be part of the funding for the completion of the company.
It added that all loans or grants from time to time made to the country for the purpose of completing the Ajaokuta Steel Company should be ploughed in the completion purse.
Senate’s passage of the bill titled: “Ajaokuta Steel Company Completion Fund Bill, 2018 was in concurrence to the earlier one passed in the House of Representatives on March 28, 2018.
The report presented by the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan (APC Yobe North) was considered and approved in the Committee of the Whole, making a clear provision that the federal government should complete the plant as against the then plan to concession it.
The proposed legislation stated that the monies in the fund shall be applied by the minister subject to appropriation by the National Assembly only for the purpose of ‘’the construction, improvement,
extension, enlargement and replacement of infrastructure and works, including the provision, acquisition, improvement and replacement of other capital assets required in respect of or in connection with the completion of the Ajaokuta Steel Company project.
‘’The carrying on of any survey, research or investigation preparatory to the under taking of any such purpose as is referred to in paragraph (a) and (b) or the formation of any plan or scheme for the development, improvement, of Ajaokuta Steel Company project’’.
Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who presided, said that the Bill if signed into law would go a long way to facilitate the quick completion of the Ajaokuta Steel complex.
The Senate also adopted the Presidential Programme on Rehabilitation and Reintegration (establishment and implementation) Bill 2018.
The Bill provides legal instrument to implement the Presidential Amnesty programme in the area of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration.
