Osinbajo Withholds Assent to Four Bills

By Omololu Ogunmade
About 72 hours after Acting President Yemi Osinbajo assented to seven bills, the acting president on Wednesday returned four bills to the National Assembly after withholding his assent from such bills.
In four separate letters respectively addressed to Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Osinbajo stated different reasons he chose to withhold his assent from each bill.
The four bills are Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (Amendment) Bill 2016; Currency Conversion (Freezing Orders) (Amendment) Bill 2016; Dangerous (Amendment) Bill 2016 and Assent to National Lottery (Amendment) Bill 2016.
On the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (Amendment) Bill 2016, Osinbajo said he opted to withhold his assent because “the concerns surrounding board composition, funding arrangements, limitation of liability of funds and proposals to increase levels of uncollateralised loans from N5,000 to N250,000”.
Details later…