By Andy Asemota
The Senate has resolved to receive the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, and the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, behind closed doors tomorrow, Thursday, 1st July 2021.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who revealed this at the plenary of the Upper Chamber on Wednesday, said immediately after the executive session, the Senate will dedicate the entire day to the consideration of the report of the Senate Joint Committee on Petroleum (Downstream); Petroleum (Upstream) and Gas to the much-awaited Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2021.

On the closed doors session, Lawan said it will offer an opportunity for the senators who are not members of the joint committee to hear the technical and financial details in the bill ahead of the debate on the floor.

The Senate President, who commended the joint committee members for doing an “extremely good job” and sacrificing their recess to ensure the speedy completion of their task, described the commitment of the present executive arm of government to the passage of the bill as unparalleled since the bill landed in the National Assembly.

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“This is yielding the desired result; both Chambers will consider the report tomorrow separately,” said Lawan as he disclosed that the Upper Chamber would longer fix committee meetings on Tuesdays and Wednesdays until after its plenary.

“We deplete our plenary when we fix our committee meetings in the morning. Please, let us adhere to this so that we have full plenary when we call plenary,” he stated.