The bill, which was introduced at the House of Representatives last year, recently passed second reading and was referred to the House Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations and Development Partners for a 2-day public hearing.
The hearing, which was attended by faith based organisations, former lawmakers, youth and women activists, civil society organisations, amongst which were Amnesty International, Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), among others, gave strong nay vote for the bill.
All the attendees, including a Catholic cleric, Bishop Matthew Kukah, and a former lawmaker, Abdul Oroh, said the bill was targeted at clamping down on the inalienable rights of the citizens, particularly, the civil society groups.
They said the bill was dead on arrival and that the National Assembly should have looked for ways of strengthening existing agencies, rather than calling for establishing new commission which is in itself an anti-people.
Reacting, the chairman of the committee, Peter Akpatason, gave assurance that his committee would not distort the report of the public hearing, saying he would present the recommendations of the committee to the House without bias.
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