President Muhammadu Buhari withheld his assent from the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) because of “legal and constitutional reasons”, his aide on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, has said.
Enang described as blackmail reports that Buhari rejected the bill because it whittled down his power as Minister of Petroleum Resources.
In a press release on Wednesday, he said the three major reasons are:
“a) That the provision of the Bill permitting the Petroleum Regulatory commission to retain as much as 10% of the revenue generated unduly increases the funds accruing to the Petroleum Regulatory commission to the detriment of the revenue available to the Federal, States, Federal capital Territory and Local governments in the country.
“b) Expanding the scope of Petroleum equalisation fund and some provisions in divergence from this administration’s policy and indeed conflicting provisions on independent petroleum equalisation fund.
“c) Some legislative drafting concerns which, if Assented to in the form presented will create ambiguity and conflict in interpretation.”
However, he said there are “other issues therein contained”, which he did not list.
Comentários