Senators and the House of Representatives’ members will resume plenary at their newly renovated chambers on Tuesday next week, after 19 months of holding plenary in committee halls.
The federal lawmakers started operating from temporary chambers since September 2022 after the commencement of renovation work on their main chambers by a construction firm in June 2022.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs , Hon Akin Rotimi and the Clerk to the Senate, Chinedu Akabueze, disclosed this in separate statements postponing the resumption of plenary earlier fixed for April 16 to April 23.
The House spokesman in the official announcement cited the need to resume plenary at the renovated and reconfigured main chamber , as reason for the postponement in line with the general wish of the members .
The statement read, “The House of Representatives wishes to inform the public and stakeholders of the rescheduling of the resumption date from the ongoing recess, originally slated for Tuesday, April 16, 2024, to Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
“This adjustment is necessary to accommodate the completion of renovations to the main chamber of the House of Representatives to ensure its readiness for plenary sessions, henceforth.”
Similarly, Akabueze ‘s statement read in part, ” Distinguished Senators are hereby invited to note that the resumption of the plenary sitting of the Senate, which was scheduled for Tuesday, 16th April 2024, has been postponed to Tuesday 23rd April 2024″
The site engineer of Visible Construction, which is handling the project, Tajudeen Olanipekun, has also told journalists that the two main chambers , would be ready for use by both the Senate and the House of Representatives on resumption next week.
President of the Senate , Godswill Akpabio, and the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Sani Magaji Tambawal had also hinted last month that both the Senate and the House of Representatives would move to their main chambers as soon as possible after close to two years of using temporary ones .
The Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) had in March 2021, awarded a N37 billion contract to Visible Construction Limited and some other firms for rehabilitation of critical segments of the National Assembly complex, construction of Library, and the permanent site for the National Assembly Service Commission ( NASC).
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