The House of Representatives was on Thursday, engulfed in a rowdy session as members debated a bill concerning the South-East Development Commission (SEDC)
It is understood that those leading the protests in the chambers are members of the House mainly from the South-East geopolitical zone.
They are said to be upset over the abrupt withdrawal of a bill seeking to create a South-East Development Commission, despite the best efforts of House Speaker Yakubu Dogara in explaining that the bill was stepped down because its sponsor, Honourable Chukwuka Onyema, was absent from plenary.
Addressing the House on the matter, Speaker Dogara said the lawmakers were not against the bill, but that debates could not be continued due to the absence of the bill’s sponsor, Hon Onyema.
Order eventually prevailed in the House after about 15 minutes of pandemonium as the bill is now being considered by the lawmakers.
The SEDC has been one of the contentious bills in the legislature following its introduction in 2016 as a response to the North East Development Commission (NEDC) introduced in 2015.
Although its core objectives are yet to be debated, advocates of the bill say it will help tackle alleged marginalisation of the south-east and bridge the development gap of the region – a cry that’s been amplified in the present administration as manifested in the recent exclusion of the south-east in the Federal Government’s modernisation policy of railway projects nationwide.
This also comes amid heightened separatist pressures in the region that saw a massive sit-at-home on May 30 (Biafra day) that crippled economic activities across all five states and parts of the south-south.
For now, the future of the bill is at best conjectural.
