NLC, Ortom To Lawmakers: Don’t Resurrect Water Resources Bill

ORGANISED Labour and Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom on Monday opposed Federal Government’s plan to pass the National Water Resources Bill into law.

The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) urged the National Assembly not to ambush Nigerians by secretly passing the Bill, which it said the public had rejected in 2018.

In a statement, titled: Do Not Ambush Nigerians, by its President, Ayuba Wabba, the NLC said it joined “patriotic voices across the country in calling on the leadership of the National Assembly not to resurrect or cause to be passed into law the Water Bill because of the danger it portends to national unity”.

It added: “Information in the public domain has it that the National Assembly leadership is working surreptitiously with vested interests outside the Assembly anxious to pass the Bill without due legislative process.

“Although the National Assembly is constitutionally vested with law-making, we warn against the National Assembly ambushing Nigerians…”

Ortom urged the National Assembly to reject the Bill, which seeks to give the Federal Government, through its agencies, the power to control all water sources – surface and underground – as well as river banks.