Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has declared the proposed Infectious Diseases Bill 2020, as superfluous, illegal, unconstitutional, and dead on arrival.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, said that the efforts to replace the 1926 Quarantine Act, is a waste of time, adding that, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, and Prevention Act of 2018, has taken care of what the Legislators are trying to achieve.
Falana stated this when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today, on Wednesday.
His words: “It is pertinent to inform Nigerians that in November 2018, a law was enacted in this country, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control Act, NCDC, Act, which has taken care of infectious diseases in the country.
“So, it is not correct, in fact, it is misleading on the part of the House of Representatives, to say that it is amending the 1926 Quarantine Act, because there is already a development between 1926 and now. You had the 2018 Act, which has taken care of the entire provisions of the new bill.
“The new bill, as far as the law is concerned, is superfluous. Its provisions are largely illegal and unconstitutional.”
Several measures are being implemented to halt the spread of coronavirus in Nigeria, which has infected over 3,000 people in the country, and claimed over 100 lives already.
The introduction of the Infectious Disease Bill 2020, has however, proven controversial, with many Nigerians calling for it to be dumped.
The Bill before the House of Representatives is co-sponsored by the Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, and 2 others,
Gbajabiamila, on Tuesday, noted that the Bill was conceived in the best interest of the Nigerian people.
According to him, the allegation that the Bill is a sinister attempt to turn the citizens into guinea pigs for medical research and take away their fundamental human rights, is far from the truth.
