LRC Not Authorised to Make Laws—Lagos Assembly

By Dipo Olowookere

Lagos State House of Assembly has debunked the allegation that there is an overlap between Law Reform Commission (LRC) and the state assembly.

Mrs Adefunmilayo Tejuoso representing Mushin Constituency I, who brought the matter to the floor of the House, stated that there have been rumours that the LRC is performing the Assembly’s duties. This insinuation emanated shortly after the presentation of the 2017 budget presentation.

In her submission at the plenary, the lawmaker said that there was need to clarify the duties of the LRC, which does not include lawmaking.

She further pointed out that there was need to implore members of the public to be careful of misguided statements that could lead to dispute or misinformation.

Contributing to the matter, Mr Segun Olulade suggested that there was need to sensitize the public by enlightening them on the roles, duties and functions of both the Legislature and the Executive because members of the public are being misinformed about those duties.

Speaker of the Assembly, Mr Mudashiru Obasa, in a remark, gave the clarification, stating that the Law Reform Commission does not make laws but reviews and works on laws passed by the Assembly. “It’s surprising to see that it’s trending on social media that the Lagos Assembly is giving its duties to the LRC.”

He further highlighted the functions of the legislature to include among others Lawmaking; Oversight functions; Passing of bills while the duty of the LRC is solely to review old laws that were passed by the House.”

He enjoined the public to note and demarcate the duties of the institution.

In another development, the Members passed a motion for an urgent re-constitution of dissolved boards of parastatals and Agencies of Government in the State.

Mr Moshood Oshun who moved the motion noted that the State Government circular Ref. No. CIR/HOS/15/VOL.1061 dated 17th June, 2015 informed the approval of Mr Akinwunmi Ambode on the dissolution of Boards of some Parastatals and Agencies of Government with immediate effect.

The House, according to him, further noted that since their dissolution in 2015, new Boards have not been re-constituted for the Agencies to replace the dissolved ones, which has affected the functions of the Agencies as stipulated in the extant laws establishing these bodies.

To this end, the House resolved to call on Governor Ambode to, as a matter of urgency, consider re-constitution of the Boards of affected Parastatals and Agencies in conformity to the extant Laws of the State.