The Senate, yesterday, said that it would explore the 30 days provision in the constitution to force the executive to assent to bills presented to it by the National Assembly.
21 Bills have so far been passed at the Senate out of a total of 178 bills introduced to it from June 2011 till date.
The constitution provides that the National Assembly can veto a bill after 30 days if the executive fails to assent to it.
The chairman of the Senate committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, in a press briefing marking the end of the Seventh Senate in the last one year and said that the 16 bills pending with the Executive are those presented during the sixth senate and added that not many of the bills sent by the Seventh National Assembly were pending with the executive.
He noted that the senate would reintroduce those bills that were not assented to by the Executive in the last senate.
Sen. Enang said also that out of the 178 bills, 122 of them are at the first reading stage while 19 have been read a second time and referred to the relevant committees, 26 others are awaiting publication in the journal while nine were withdrawn for representation by sponsors.