The Lagos State House of Assembly has taken a bold
step to amend the Lagos State Independent Electoral
Commission (LASIEC) Law 2008 in order to prevent a
re-occurrence of what happened recently in Kogi
State, when the candidate of the APC, the late Audu
Abubakar died before result of the election was
announced by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC).
Speaking at a stakeholders meeting on the issue on
Friday, the Chairman of the House Committee on
Judiciary, Human Rights, Public Petitions and LASIEC,
Hon. Funmilayo Tejuosho said that the call for the
amendment of LASIEC law was very important,
adding that it would avert future occurrence of what
led to the crisis in Kogi State.
According to her, the rules must be dynamic and it
must be reviewed from time to time just like laws.
PVC is a new development that has to be included in
our laws. It is important to note that the Kogi State
Gubernatorial debacle was not envisaged in the
constitution and Electoral Act.
"We have to continue to amend our laws and we have
tried to put that in our amendment. The amendment
of the law would reduce cases in the courts because
when the law is clear, you don't have to go for the
interpretation of the law. We have to ensure that
laws are in place for local governments and Local
Council Development Areas (LCDAs), especially while
preparing for election which will happen soon, they
must have laws that will guide them," Tejuosho said.
One of the stakeholders, Mr. Olumide Lawal noted
that there should be a provision that will take care of
the remuneration of tribunal members in the law.
He went on: "those who work in the tribunals should
be equipped with recording gadgets because they still
write with long hands, which supposed not to be. At
times, we have cases, whereby we have 150
witnesses and this takes time, when we use long
hands to write their evidences."
Others from the United Action for Change (UAC)
urged the House to include some provisions that
would prevent the Kogi State crisis in the law.
The amendment, which was reviewed by the Majority
Leader of the House, Hon. Sanai Agunbiade contained
nine sections. The amendment of principle law
section stated that "where a person duly elected as
chairman of LG/LCDA dies before subscribing to oath
of allegiance, the person elected with him as vice
chairman shall be sworn in as chairman."
One of the Commissioners in LASIEC however,
revealed that the local government election is yet to
hold due to the delay in the provision of voters
register from Abuja.
"The people in charge visited our office and
promised to make them available as soon as
possible," he said.
Responding, Hon. Tejuosho said that the people want
the local government election to hold in due course.
"We are glad that LASIEC explained to the
stakeholders why the local government election has
not hold. They are also eager to conduct the election
and they are working hard to get the voters register
before the election."
"The stakeholders have responded very well. Many of
them will submit their memorandum to the
Assembly. We applaud them for their quick response
to the amendment of the law," she said.
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