TheCable

Senate President Ahmad Lawan says the upper legislative chamber will debate the petroleum industry bill on October 20.

Ezrel Tabiowo, Lawan’s special assistant on media, said the senate president announced the scheduled date for the debate moments before the upper chamber adjourned plenary.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently sent the PIB to the national assembly for consideration and passage.

The bill, which has been in the works for 20 years, is expected to cause reforms in the oil and gas sector including scrap the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).

The senate president explained that the early debate will prevent delay as the upper chamber work towards scrutinising the 2021 budget presented by the president.

“For the PIB, we need to get the document to our joint committee before we suspend plenary, otherwise, the document will remain unattended to throughout the time that we would be handling the budget; and that means we can only come back to it around November or December, and that would be late,” he said.

“Everybody is waiting for the PIB to be attended to, but we will take sufficient time to work on it because it is a very sensitive document.

“Nevertheless, we should take the debate and second reading of the PIB by the upper week, Tuesday, October 20, 2020, and refer the document to our joint committees on petroleum (upstream and downstream); and gas.

“So, while we are working on the budget, they can keep work on the PIB warm. We are not going to rush on it since we have the budget before us.

“Our joint committee must do everything possible for us to have a document or report that we would work with in the senate and something that Nigerians and investors will be happy with.”

In January, Lawan said the national assembly was working towards passing the PIB before the end of the year.