National Health Emergency Bill Passes First Reading In Senate

The Senate version of the Quarantine law, titled ‘National Health Emergency Bill’, scales first reading on Tuesday.

The PUNCH had exclusively reported last week that the proposed legislation would surface on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday.

The National Health Emergency bill was sponsored by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Primary  Healthcare and Communicable Disease, Senator Chukwuka Utazi.

The House of Representatives version of the bill generated serious controversy.

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A former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, protested the non-distribution of the bill to members before its presentation.

He, therefore, urged the Senate to distribute the bill so that senators would know the details.

He said doing so would enable him and others to know the contents and come up with informed comments.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, asked the management to distribute the bill to members before the Second reading which would be taken in another legislative day.

Details later…