The Akwa Ibom House of Assembly has passed 19 bills into law out of 52 bills sponsored in two years.
Mr Aniefiok Akpan, Chairman, House Committee on Information, said this while speaking with newsmen in Uyo on Monday on the achievements of the seventh assembly in the last two years.
Akpan said the seventh assembly concentrated on making laws that were beneficial to the people.
He added that members were interested in ensuring that the bills were assented to by Gov. Udom Emmanuel.
He said that the assembly had liaised with the Attorney-General of the state to fine tune the bills passed into laws in order to get the assent of the Governor.
Akpan, who is representing Etinan constituency, said the idea was to make sure the bills passed were not rejected by the governor because of shortcomings.
“In terms of law making at various stages, we have sponsored about 52 bills, some of them have passed third reading in which some have been assented to.
“We move not just motions, but people oriented motions.
“Like the Debt Management Bill that was assented to, we don’t want a situation whereby the executive will on their own have control, we want the public to have a say.
“Public Procurement Bill was also passed into law. Now, there must be bidding, not just one person coming to take a job, there must be local content as far as the law is concerned.
“If there is a job that can be appropriately handled by our people, there is no need to bring someone from outside to do it.
“The violence against persons law has been assented to by His Excellency.
“Unfortunately, during the lockdown, we had a lot of rape related issues, gender issues concerning the girl- child and women generally.
“The law used to be violence against women, but it is now violence against persons because women attack men and men attack women. That is one law in terms of definition of rape that has been expanded,” he said.
Akpan also reiterated that the assembly was committed to a legislative agenda that focused on the people.
He added that the house had been repelling or amending obsolete laws where necessary in line with current realities.
Akpan said members had empowered their constituencies in different ways in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic and strike by legislative workers association.
He noted that the assembly was instrumental to the resolution of the strike embarked upon by the Joint Action Committee in the Akwa Ibom State University.
