Following the public outcry, the Senate at a plenary on Tuesday threw out the frivolous petitions (Prohibition, etc) ‚bill 2015, otherwise known as anti-social bill and suspended all further consideration of the Bill.
The decision follows the report of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters which recommended for its withdrawal.
The Committee in its report said that although the bill was innovative and laudable, its passage in its current form would hinder the anti-corruption war which was a focal point of the current administration.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator David Umaru (APC, Niger East) said that most of the provisions of the bill had already been covered by other extant laws of the Federation and could not be duplicated.
Umaru said: “Some of our extant Acts, such as the Penal Code, the Criminal Code, the cybercrime Act, etc‚ have sufficient provisions to address the issues that the Frivolous Petitions (Prohibition, etc) ‚bill 2015, seeks to address.
“Even though the Bill has a tacit implication of discouraging frivolous and malicious petitions, its passage into law in this current form, will do more harm than good.
“This Bill will conflict with some provisions in some of our extant Acts, which make provisions for whistle blowers protection, passing this bill will expose them to more dangers and threats to life.
“What we need to do now as legislators is to amend and update some of our extant Acts to accommodate emerging global trends rather than having a new Iaw.”
According to him, other findings by the committee which informed its recommendation was that the bill will make life difficult for Nigerians who lived far away from High Courts.
He stressed that other forms of communication such as text messages, tweets, whatsapps which the bill sought to police was already being regulated by the Nigerian Communication Act of 2003, stressing that the purpose of the Bill was closely related to the offence of defamation which was also already covered by law.
The committee, therefore, recommended, ”that the Senate do withdraw the bill for an Act to prohibit Frivolous Petitions; and other matters connected therewith.”
Senators who made comments threw their weight behind the bill’s withdrawal saying that it was anti-people.
Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) said that the bill would impugn on the information gathering of the Police, adding that it was also against the anti corruption war of this administration.
He said that he was one of the sponsors of the Freedom of Information Act and could not support a bill that was against the tenets of that Act.
Senator Shehu Sani (APC, Kaduna Central) admonished people in position of authority to be more tolerant of critics from Nigerians, using whatever social media platform they deemed fit.
He said that there was an overwhelming opposition to the bill and as such, it was pertinent that the bill be dropped in the interest of Nigerians and democracy.
However, Senate Minority Leader, Senator Godswill Akpabio, while supporting the withdrawal of the bill, said that he still considered the aspect that dealt with character assassination as important.
In his response, Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekwerenmadu who presided over plenary said that the withdrawal of the bill had demonstrated the beauty of the Senate and the National Assembly.
He noted that no group of persons or individual can intimidate them not to carry out their responsibilities as enshrined in the Constitution, stressing that the bill’s withdrawal had shown that not every bill that came to the Senate will be passed as the senate was only committed to passing bills that would positively affect Nigerians.
” We cannot continue to duplicate our laws. Nigerians must give us the benefit of the doubt to debate bill. Not every bill debated would be passed.
“We shall never be intimidated by anyone, all we owe our people is consultation before final passage.
“The public must also know that not every bill that comes here would translate to the passage,” he said.
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