{"id":19934,"date":"2020-06-09T14:01:01","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T14:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=19934"},"modified":"2020-06-09T14:01:08","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T14:01:08","slug":"despite-mounting-opposition-sen-utazi-says-no-going-back-on-controversial-health-emergency-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=19934","title":{"rendered":"Despite mounting opposition, Sen Utazi says \u2018no going back\u2019 on controversial Health Emergency Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Despite<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Senator Chukwuka Utazi has said there was no going back on the Health Emergency Bill in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The senator\u2019s position is coming amid mounting opposition against the bill and a similar one at the House of Representatives, the Infectious Disease Bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu<\/a> recently described the bill as more dangerous than the coronavirus that is giving birth to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ekweremadu also assured that the bill would not be passed by the National Assembly because \u201cA lot of parliamentarians have lined up to oppose it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Senator Utazi, who represents Enugu North senatorial district, speaking on Monday during an interview on the Control of Infectious Disease Bill Townhall, which aired on Channels Television said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to say that there is no going back on this bill. We are already set on a voyage and all we want is informed input into this bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no better time for any law to come into force. Anytime within the pendency of the four-year tenure of the National Assembly is the time to make any law and that is just what we are doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utazi, who sponsored the National Health Emergency Bill at the Senate, explained that the National Assembly was legislating on the bill in order to fill gaps in the health sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noting how he was shocked when he visited a hospital and how the doctors were footing the bills of the patients, which shouldn\u2019t be, Utazi said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is very necessary and timely for this bill to come into place because there are gaps that are existing that need to be filled. We need to have a legal framework to guide our activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe cannot continue depending on executive orders one after the other. It is totally wrong. This is a democracy. We are not in a military regime where the executive will make laws for the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have the National Assembly that is in place and sitting and that is what we want to do. We want to take up our duties and do that job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator Chukwuka Utazi has said there was no going back on the Health Emergency Bill in the Senate. The senator\u2019s position is coming amid mounting opposition against the bill and a similar one at the House of Representatives, the Infectious Disease Bill. A former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu recently described the bill as more dangerous than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDespite mounting opposition, Sen Utazi says \u2018no going back\u2019 on controversial Health Emergency Bill » WatchDog Plus Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=19934\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Odofin\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=19934#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Legislature\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=36\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Despite mounting opposition, Sen Utazi says \u2018no going back\u2019 on controversial Health Emergency Bill\"}]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Despite mounting opposition, Sen Utazi says \u2018no going back\u2019 on controversial Health Emergency Bill » WatchDog Plus Media","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=19934","author":"Odofin","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?p=19934#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Legislature","item":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=36"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Despite mounting opposition, Sen Utazi says \u2018no going back\u2019 on controversial Health Emergency Bill"}]}]}},"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Odofin","author_link":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?author=2"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/?cat=36\" rel=\"category\">Legislature<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Senator Chukwuka Utazi has said there was no going back on the Health Emergency Bill in the Senate. The senator\u2019s position is coming amid mounting opposition against the bill and a similar one at the House of Representatives, the Infectious Disease Bill. A former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu recently described the bill as more dangerous than…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19934"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19934"}],"version-history":[{"count":-4,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/watchdogplusmedia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}