The controversial social media bill has been thrown out of the Nigerian Senate following a vote by the lawmakers yesterday.
The decision was reached at the end of the presentation of the report on the bill by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator David Umaru (APC, Niger East).
Vanguard reported that Umaru said the committee recommended that the controversial bill be withdrawn, stressing that if passed into law, it would affect the anti-corruption war of the Federal Government and do more harm than good to President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
The recommendation, which was in two short paragraphs, read: “The Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to which was referred a Bill for an Act to Prohibit Frivolous Petition, and other Matters Connected therewith, having considered same, reports negatively thereon and accordingly recommends that the Senate withdraws the bill.”
The chairman also argued that the passage of the bill would conflict with some provisions of extant acts, penal code, criminal code and the cyber crime act which have sufficient provisions to address the issues that the Frivolous Petitions Prohibition Bill sought to address.
The decision of The Senate finally lays to rest months of fierce online and offline outrages over the move of the lawmakers.