Reps to strip convicted National Honours award winners

The House of Repre­sentatives yesterday passed for second reading an amendment to the Nigerian National Merit award Act which seeks to strip off awards to recipients if convicted for a criminal offence.

The Bill titled ‘An Act to Amend the Nigerian National Merit Award Act, Cap. N122, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004’ requires that any awardee that is convicted of a criminal offence shall be stripped of the honour.

Debating the bill, its Sponsor, Ayodele Olad­imeji, who sponsored the bill said, the amendment he was proposing was in the bid to strengthen the anti-corruption war being fought by the Buhari ad­ministration.

“There is need for the law to be amended; this will strengthen the anti-corruption war of the gov­ernment of the day”, he said.

“The awardee must be found guilty of any crime by a competent court of jurisdiction before the ex­ecutive consider the strip­ping of such awards.”

Contributing to the debate, Adamu Kamale, while giving support to the amendment, said it would make the recipients of such awards live up to expecta­tion.

The bill passed Second Reading after Yakubu Dog­ara, the speaker put it to a voice vote.