The House of Representatives has set up a seven-member ad-hoc committee to investigate claims that tax bills passed by the National Assembly were altered before being signed into law and published.
Speaker of the House, Abbas Tajudeen, announced the committee on Thursday, December 18. He named Hon. Muktar Aliyu Betara as chairman of the panel.
Other members of the committee are former Deputy Speaker Ahmed Idris Wase, Sada Soli, James Abiodun Faleke, Fred Agbedi, Babajimi Benson and Iduma Igariwey.
First Daily reports that the probe stems from an alert raised on Wednesday by Hon. Abdulsammad Dasuki (PDP, Sokoto), who drew the attention of his colleagues to what he described as discrepancies between the tax laws passed by parliament and the versions later gazetted and circulated to the public.
Invoking Order Six, Rule Two of the House Standing Orders on a Point of Privilege, Dasuki said his rights as a legislator had been infringed, insisting that the published versions of the tax laws did not reflect what members debated, voted on and approved.
He explained that after the tax bills were passed, he spent three days scrutinising the gazetted laws side by side with the House Votes and Proceedings and the harmonised copies adopted by both the Senate and the House, and that the documents did not match in some areas.
“I was here, I gave my vote and it was counted, and I am seeing something completely different,” Dasuki said, adding that he obtained copies of the gazetted laws from the Ministry of Information and found them to be inconsistent with what was approved by both the House and the Senate,” he had said.
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He stressed that his intervention was not a routine motion, but a bid to alert the chamber to what he called “a serious breach” of both due legislative process and constitutional requirements.
Dasuki appealed to the Speaker to direct that all relevant records, including the harmonised versions of the bills, the Votes and Proceedings of both chambers and the gazetted copies in circulation, be laid before the Committee of the Whole so that every member could examine them.
He cautioned that allowing any version of a law that differs from what the National Assembly actually passed to stand before Nigerians would damage the credibility of the legislature and offend constitutional provisions.
“Mr Speaker, I will be pleading that all the documents should be brought before the Committee of the Whole Thank you.
“The whole members should see what is in the gazetted copy and see what they passed on the floor so that we can make the relevant amendment. Mister Speaker, this is the breach of the Constitution.
“This is the breach of our laws, and this should not be taken by this honorable House. Thank you Mister Speaker,” he added.
Responding during plenary, Speaker Abbas Tajudeen said he had noted Dasuki’s Point of Privilege and assured members that the House would act on the issue, leading to the constitution of the investigative committee.