Reps Moves To Establish New Rules for Probe Panels

The leadership of the House of Representatives have intended to create new rules in a move to prevent the recurrence of the embarrassment caused by the recent and ongoing activities of its panels.

Ekohotblog gathered that the House will get new rules, modalities and terms of reference when the National Assembly resumes.

It was gathered that the new rules would, among other things, check highhandedness by chairmen of committees when engaging the heads of ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government.

Information has it that the leadership has chosen to specify a deadline for pannel to enable the conclusions for probes and other assignments.

Also, the chairmen of each panel must properly carry the vice-chairmen and other members along.

According to PUNCH, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to talk about the plan, noted that committees had been breaking the Standing Rules of the House while carrying out the responsibilities assigned to them.

The source said, “Standing committees will assert their role above ad hoc committees. The era where ad hoc committees will stay beyond their timeframe and perpetually elongate the duration of their assignment without recourse to the chamber will be checked.”