SENATE PASS NEW BILL SEEKING BACKING FOR NIGERIAN TERRITORIAL SEA

The Senate on Tuesday passed a bill seeking to provide legal
framework for the administration of Nigeria’s territorial sea and offshore
activities.

The Bill for an Act to Repeal the Exclusive Economic Zone Act 2004;
and the Territorial Waters Act 2004 and Enact the Nigerian Maritime
Zone Act to Provide for Maritime Zones in Nigeria was sponsored by a
member of the senate, George Thompson Sekibo of the People’s
Democratic Party, Rivers East.

The Senate, however, passed it after considering a report on the matter
by the Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters.

Chairman of the Senate Committee, Opeyemi Bamidele, said the bill
sought to streamline all national laws and efforts in line with global best
practices in other jurisdictions and provisions of the United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea.

He noted that Nigeria had vast resources from the ocean, which include
oil and gas, fish and fishery resources, minerals, salt, renewable energy
resources, hence the need for such legislation.
Bamidele stated that stakeholders at a public hearing on the bill posited
that the territorial sea, in addition to internal waters, was a zone within
which Nigeria enjoys sovereignty.

The Senate and House of Representatives have
intervened in the diplomatic row between Nigeria and the United Arab
Emirates, UAE.

According to them, tis he development is having a negative impact on
Nigerians amid the work permit restriction and other challenges they face
in the Arabian country.

The matter formed one of the major subjects of deliberation during
Tuesday’s plenary at both chambers of the National Assembly in Abuja.

In its resolution, the Senate mandated its Committees on Foreign Affairs,
Presidential Task Force, PTF, on COVID-19, National Security, as well as
Intelligence and Interior respectively, to interface with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and National Intelligence Agency, NIA, on best ways of
resolving the dispute and report back to the lawmakers within two weeks.

The House of Representatives, on its part, set up an ad-hoc committee to
liaise with relevant government agencies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
over the treatment of Nigerians by the UAE authorities.
The ad-hoc committee set up by the lawmakers was directed to find out the
underlying causes of the poor treatment of Nigerians living in the Arabian
country.