Sanate finalise plans to override President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto

In a bid to finalise plans to override President Buhari’s veto of the Electoral Amendment Act bill, principal officers of the National Assembly would meet today.

While the Senate has reportedly garnered enough signatures to override a presidential veto, the House has not yet caught up.

The bill has reportedly been taken for gazetting in preparation for the fresh passage of the amendment bill Principal officers of the upper and lower legislative chambers would meet on Monday, March 19, to finalise plans to override President Muhammadu Buhari’s veto of the Electoral Amendment Act bill, Vanguard reports. The development comes following the joint declaration by Senate president Bukola Saraki and House speaker Yakubu Dogara, that the National Assembly would move against the veto of the bill which reorders the sequence of elections. READ ALSO: Land Use Charge: Lagos police warns against unauthorized protests NAIJ.com gathers that Saraki disclosed that the upper legislative chamber had already gathered the 73 signatures needed to override a presidential veto. The green chamber is expected to compile its own signatures this week.

The scheduled meeting would reportedly set the tone for the generation of the signatures. For a presidential veto to be overridden, the Constitution dictates that the bill must be passed for a second time by two-thirds of the members of each chamber. Two-thirds of the House is 240; while that of the Senate is 72. The bill has reportedly been taken for gazetting in preparation for the fresh passage of the amendment bill. It is expected that it would again go through first, second and a third reading and passed; following which the president’s assent would not be required.

In a joint statement, the special advisers on media and publicity to the Senate president and Speaker, Yusuph Olaniyonu and Turaki Hassan, respectively, said: “The Senate president and the speaker, as heads of the two chambers of the National Assembly and representing the views of their colleagues, will want everybody to know that they are on the same page on what is the appropriate reaction to the president’s withholding of assent on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.”