Defective microphones thwarted Wednesday’s proceeding at the House of Representatives, thereby forcing the house to adjourn plenary to Thursday, November 8, 2018.
Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the House of Assembly, said that the Green Chamber had to halt proceedings as most of the microphones were faulty.
Dogara explained that the malfunction was as a result of power surge which had affected the panel of some of the microphones.
He said that the microphones were installed in 1999, and that the replacement panels would take three weeks to arrive Nigeria from Germany.
Ahead of Thursday plenary, the speaker urged lawmakers to sit in the front row as the few functioning microphones would all be transferred to the front seats.
The News Agency of Nigeria observed that the lawmakers found it difficult to make contributions to motions and bills from their seats, as the attached microphones were faulty.
The legislators had to move from seat-to-seat in search of functioning microphones, to make contributions to bills and motions. The Deputy Speaker, Rep. Yussuf Lasun was also affected.
Earlier, reporters, observers and other guests at the gallery had among themselves, complained of very poor audio.
The situation, however got out of hand when the Clerk of the House, Adamu Abdulkadir, was to read the title of a ‘Bill for an Act to Eradicate the Age Discrimination against Job seekers in the Federal Government Agencies; and for Related Matters.’
The clerk moved out of his seat to seats meant for lawmakers and kept moving to different seats in search of a functioning microphone.
He finally found a functioning microphone on the third row and read the long title of the bill which had passed second reading.
The legislators voted in affirmative after a motion for adjournment was moved by the chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Rep. Edward Pwajok (APC-Plateau).
The plenary ended at about 1.30pm with four items that were yet to be debated by the legislators still left on the Order Paper.
