The National Water Resources Control Bill, 2020 is to be represented to the floor of the House of Representatives following its withdrawal on Tuesday.
There was serious opposition to the bill by some members over alleged breach of House Standing Rules while working towards passing the bill into law.
During plenary, some members of the House drew the attention of the leadership to various rules of the House, which had been allegedly flouted.
They said that the bill should be thrown away or at best withdrawn, reworked and then represented for consideration.
The bill was passed two months ago before the legislators went on recess.
The water bill had faced serious opposition from within the National Assembly and from outside, with some people opposed to it, saying it was meant to take away their “God-given resource”, while those supporting the bill said its merits were deliberately discredited using politics and other divisive tendencies.
Had the bill sailed through on Tuesday, it would have been sent to the Senate for concurrence and thereafter to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
However, following the adoption of a matter of privilege raised by Rep. Benjamin Mzondu (PDP-Benue), the members of the House of Representatives unanimously resolved to gazette the bill for reconsideration.