By Christiana Ekpa
A fresh controversy has erupted in the House of Representatives over alleged alterations to recently enacted tax laws, as the House leadership and the Minority Caucus traded sharp words on parliamentary procedure, authority, and accountability.
The House of Representatives, through its Spokesman, Rep. Akin Rotimi, on Sunday issued a firm press statement distancing the legislature from an interim report released by a Minority Caucus–led ad hoc committee on alleged discrepancies in the tax reform laws.
The House clarified that no political caucus has the constitutional or procedural authority to constitute a committee with parliamentary standing.
According to the statement, only committees established by the House in plenary or by the Speaker, in line with the Standing Orders (Eleventh Edition), possess investigative and oversight powers. Any committee formed outside that framework, the House said, is “non-binding, informal, and without legal or institutional consequence.”
The House further disclosed that a duly constituted, bipartisan ad hoc committee—set up in December 2025 following concerns raised on the floor by an opposition lawmaker—is already examining claims of multiple versions of the tax laws. That committee, chaired by Rt. Hon. Muktar Aliyu Betara, remains active and is expected to submit its report to the House in plenary.
The statement added that the National Assembly has since published the official Gazette and issued Certified True Copies (CTCs) of the tax laws, disowning any unofficial documents in circulation and affirming that the legislative process has been concluded.
However, the Minority Caucus strongly rejected the House leadership’s position. In a detailed reaction, Hon. Afam Victor Ogene, Chairman of the Minority Caucus Ad-hoc Committee on Tax Laws, accused the House Deputy Spokesperson, Hon. Philip Agbese, of downplaying a serious institutional breach.
Ogene argued that dismissing the Minority Caucus interim report as “overtaken by events” risks enabling impunity and shielding external actors alleged to have tampered with legislative documents. He insisted that the caucus committee did not indict the National Assembly but instead exposed what he described as “flagrant interference by external actors within government bureaucracy” aimed at undermining the legislature’s constitutional authority.
The Minority Caucus chairman questioned why the Betara-led committee constituted by House leadership was still sitting if the issue had truly been resolved by the release of the CTCs. He described the situation as contradictory and warned that overlooking accountability would weaken democratic institutions.
“Democratic institutions are strengthened when accountability is upheld, not when official malfeasance is glossed over,” Ogene said, expressing confidence that the House leadership under Speaker Abbas Tajudeen would ultimately defend the independence and integrity of the legislature.The exchange has exposed deep divisions within the House over how to handle the tax laws controversy, even as the leadership insists that only constitutionally recognised parliamentary processes can produce binding outcomes.
