The chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary and Justice and member representing Idah constituency in the Kogi State House of Assembly, Halidu Adejoh Usman, said the lawmakers are willing to surpass the records of previous assemblies in the passage of impact bills.
Usman disclosed this on Monday while speaking to journalists after the public hearing on various bills held at the Kogi State Assembly complex in Lokoja.
According to him: “Bills are for the public. We as an arm of government, this is our primary responsibility. For a bill not to be seen as anti-people, we have to invite all stakeholders to be part of deliberations before the final passage of the bill.
“This is what we just demonstrated here today by inviting all critical stakeholders to have their input.”
On some of the bills examined during the public hearing, he said: “For the anti corruption bill, there is a saying that evil unchecked grows and the ones you tolerate poison the system. When you have an anti-graft agency in Kogi State, it will help us check ourselves.
“We should not wait for the ICPC or other anti graft agency to come and check us. We will check ourselves first before any external body. This is more or less the best for our state. It will help the state to grow. There is no sector of the economy where you won’t find corruption.”
He added: “In Kano, they have domesticated this law. We are having a repeat of it in Kogi, it shows our state is working for progress.”
Concerning the bill for the establishment of an electricity regulatory agency in Kogi State, he said: “You could hear the views of all the stakeholders present who all placed emphasis on the need to look into the activities of service providers in Kogi State.
“In this bill, we are looking at how customers are not always protected, and we are here for the people. That is why you see a lot of people present at this public hearing expressing their opinions on this. People pay electricity bills and they don’t get service for it. This bill is going to help re-address all this issues.
“We are aware that many Nigerians are being billed without meters through estimated bills, and unverified figures. So, this bill will help Citizens of the State to know their rights in areas where the regulatory body are trying to infringe on their rights.”
Usman further stated:”The current eighth Assembly is one house that is well coordinated. I am very optimistic that we will surpass the record of the previous assembly.”