Enugu State Assembly Pledges to pass Child Rights bill

The Enugu State House of Assembly has pledged to pass the Child Rights Bill currently before it.

The Speaker of the assembly, Edward Ubosi, made the pledge in Enugu on Thursday during plenary.

According to him, the house is not in a hurry to pass the bill to ensure that justice is done on the bill before passage.

Ubosi, however, referred the bill to four House Committees on Judiciary, Gender, Education and Poverty Alleviation to do a thorough job on the bill because of its importance to the society.

The speaker urged the committees to conduct a public hearing for four days to enable everyone to contribute to the passage of the bill.

He promised to assist the committees financially and otherwise to ensure they did a thorough job on the bill.

The speaker gave the committees one month to submit their report.

Earlier in his contribution, Paul Nnajiofor (PDP-Nkanu East) said that the bill would improve the lives of children in the state.

Nnajiofor said the bill would also help parents to know their roles in the family as the Bible says “train up a child the way it should be and when he grows, he will not depart from it”.

He said that 24 states of the federation had passed the bill and Enugu State would not be left out.

Also contributing, Anthony Ogidi (PDP-Igbo-Eze North I) said the bill if passed would guard children against rape and sexual harassment.

Ogidi said that fine of N50, 000 for violators of the bill was too small and should be reviewed for people to take it serious.

He said the bill gave freedom to children to express their rights and urged the committees involved to consider the Igbo culture before concluding their report.

Meanwhile, Chuma Obieze (PDP-Ezeagu) said that the bill should be able to identify the age of a child.

“Who is a child? Is it someone under 0 to 17 years because some people under the ages of 15 to 17 have up to two or three children. Who is now a child? Is it the mother or the children?” he asked.

The speaker thanked the members for their contributions to the debate and adjourned sitting to May 31st.