…explains delays in FOI bill

By Emmanuel Aziken & Inalegwu Shuaibu

ABUJA — The Senate is not involved in the business of awarding contracts, the President of the Senate, Chief David Mark has said.

Senator Mark equally expressed the Senate’s interest in the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill but nevertheless restated his desire that punitive sanctions for libel should be addressed in the bill.

Senator Mark spoke at a media award ceremony organised by Western Publishing Company Limited in Abuja weekend in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Paul Mumeh.

Affirming that Senators do not award contracts or appoint persons into executive positions actions which he claimed were strictly executive duties, Mark who was represented by Senator Ayogu Eze, chairman of the Senate committee on Media and Publicity said in a speech titled “the role of the mass media in a developing democracy”, said “What we read from the newspapers everyday is the impressionistic fallacy that the legislators are given cash to undertake constituency projects”.