The Nation Newspaper

Tag: laws

  • Ambode: Lagos‘ll enhance laws to fight flood

    Ambode: Lagos‘ll enhance laws to fight flood

    Last weekend’s flooding of Ikoyi, Victioria Island, Lekki and environs has shown that the Lagos State government must step up its enforcement of physical planning laws, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has said.

    Speaking at the Water Technology and Environmental Control Conference and Exhibition in Lagos, Ambode said the government would reinvigorate the campaign against the dumping of refuse into canals.

    “We will be stronger in enforcing our physical planning laws especially those building illegally on canals and blocking the free flow of water across the state.

    “For the past few days, the state, and indeed most parts of the country, have witnessed torrential rainfall which is quite unprecedented. We have witnessed our most prime estates flooded with water, we have seen our roads taken over by floods, and we have painfully watched how many homesteads have literally become pools.

    “These indeed are trying times for any government, especially our own administration which has determinedly pursued massive infrastructural development to improve standards of living of our citizenry,” the governor said.”

    Ambode said the canals and drains must be reviewed to re-envision the water management system.

    “So, in effect, what we should immediately pursue is a holistic solution to what is certain to be a recurring problem. It must be a sincere collaboration between government and the citizenry,” he said.

    Ambode said flooding was not peculiar to Nigeria, nor he Third World, noting that the United Kingdom was heavily flooded this year.

    “Japan, a country that is equally technologically savvy has also not been spared heavy flooding this year. No matter how well a society may be prepared, we can never rule out the element of the natural or if you like, the supernatural. This is why Lagos State, and indeed Nigeria fully subscribes to the tenets of Climate Change Solutions by the United Nations.

    “While all the aforementioned examples enjoin us to put our experience and pains into perspective, they also impress on us as a state and a government that we must learn from all these examples in order to better prepare for the future.

     

  • PACAC seeks quick passage of anti-graft laws

    Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC) Executive Secretary Prof. Bolaji Owasanoye has urged the Senate to pass pending bills on the anti-corruption war into law.

    He said several of such bills have been pending for long without consideration.

    Owasanoye spoke with reporters at a one-day Conference on Financial System Integrity Improvement, organised by PACAC, the Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Chattered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) and the Convention on Business Integrity (CBI).

    According to him, apart from the Mutual Legal Assistance law that has been passed, others such as the Proceeds of Crime Bill, have been “hanging”.

    Owasanoye said: “They (senators) have passed the Mutual Legal Assistance legislation, which is to facilitate and improve exchange of information and evidence between states. The House of Representatives passed the Proceeds of Crime Act, which is going through the motions in the Senate.

    “But we’ll admit that the process is very slow. This is with regard in particular to certain key legislations, such as Proceeds of Crime Bill, Witness Protection Bill, Whistleblower Bill, Crime Data Register Bill and the Money Laundering Bill, which have been hanging there.

    “So, there is no doubt that there is merit in the criticism that pro-anti-corruption bills are not moving as quickly as we would love to see them move.”

    The PACAC chairman urged the lawmakers to speed up the consideration of the bill on special crime court, which he said will enhance the anti-graft war when passed.

    “We’ll like to see also the Special Crimes Court bill passed expeditiously, so that all of this would help improve the fight against corruption. All the bills are before the National Assembly.

    “We would wish to see faster processing of such legislation. But, at the same time, we’re not necessarily saying they should compromise quality or standards,” he said.

  • ‘Enforcement bane of our laws’

    A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Prof Fidelis Oditah, has said there are  enough laws for tackling crimes. But he lamented that the laws were not being enforced.

    Odittah, who is also a Queen’s Counsel (QC), said this was why some ‘connected’ people commit crimes and get away with it.

    The senior lawyer made this observation in a chat with newsmen in Lagos.

    He said: “We have laws and policies but who is going to enforce them? If you steal a chicken, you are more likely to go to jail than if you steal, say about N1 billion. When you have N1 billion, then you can hire a lawyer, you can reach out to whoever you want to reach out to, to make sure you don’t go to jail.

    “If you steal N1 billion, the EFCC will come in a Gestapo style and there will be a headline that you have been arrested. After two weeks or so, you have fulfilled the bail conditions, you are a free man, living large because the country has no capacity to enforce its laws”.

    Oditah praised some initiatives  by Acting President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) to make the business environment more friendly.

    “ I love those three policy guidelines, especially the one about the default approval that says that if the period for saying ‘no’ has passed, then it is deemed to be ‘yes’. It is fantastic. I hope they can follow up on it,” he said.

    He, however, regretted that in situations where government initiated good policies, civil servants always found justification for not enforcing such for personal reasons.

    He described the public service and  civil servants as corrupt, incompetent and inefficient, noting that “it is difficult to know where incompetence ends and corruption begins”.

    He said the country’s biggest problem is the public service, adding that “given the size of the public service that is very incompetent, very corrupt, very inefficient, how do you deliver public services?

    The lawyer, who practises  abroad, said the inability to enforce laws and policies sometimes frustrates him.

    “I had developed as a lawyer abroad before I came to Nigeria. I was shocked at what I saw. I did not think that there was any justice administration that could go as low as the Nigerian system.

    “I was used to English courts where things are reasonably efficient. When you get to Nigeria, nothing prepares you for the chaos that is in the civil and criminal justice system.

    “You wonder, how is it that we have good lawyers and good justices, but no collective capacity to deliver good civil and criminal justice system?”

    He added: “In Nigeria you can find a chief judge lamenting that judges are over worked. That is unacceptable. If things are dysfunctional, I expect the chief judge to know what to do.”

  • Union seeks repeal of old labour laws

    Union seeks repeal of old labour laws

    The Association of Senior Staff of Banks  Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) is sponsoring  bills at the National Assembly to change labour  laws in the banks and other institutions, its President, Comrade Oyinkan Olasanoye, has said.

    Speaking with The Nation, said most of the laws regulating the sector were old and needed to be repealed.

    She said: “Most of the labour laws we are using are those ones put in place prior to independence. There are modern ways of doing things now under the current age of globalisation.’’

    She also said  the association was planning to inaugurate job loss insurance scheme in view of the mass sack in the financial sector.

    Comrade Olasanoye said the scheme was an avenue to compensate members for  job losses.

    On casualisation, she maintained that the union would continue to fight the menace, which she said was a big challenge in the country.

  • Senate urged to enforce cyber crime laws

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and Cyber Crime, Senator Fatai Buhari, has said the Senate has a role to play in the reduction of cyber crimes by creating awareness on ways to enforce cyber crime laws.

    Buhari, who represents Oyo North, spoke while delivering a lecture entitled: “Legislative Commitment and Cyber Crime in Nigeria”, during the Law Week of Faculty of Law, Lead City University, Ibadan, Oyo State.

    He said the commitment of lawmakers to curb cyber crimes changed recently with the passage of the Cyber Crime Act 2015 and Electronic Transactions Bill 2016.

    Buhari said having passed the law, implementation of the Act and compliance by the executive, judiciary and the citizenry was required.

    He listed the causes of cyber crimes as urbanisation, unemployment, quest for wealth, weak implementation of cyber crime laws and inadequate equipped law agencies, negative role models, high rate of poverty,

    corruption, lack of standard and natural central control, lack of infrastructure, lack of national functional data bases, proliferation of cyber cafes and porous nature of the Internet.

  • Gemade: Senate ’ll review FMBN, FHA laws

    Gemade: Senate ’ll review FMBN, FHA laws

    The Senate is to review the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) and Federal Housing Authority (FHA) laws to enable Nigerians benefit from some affordable housing schemes, its Housing Committee Chairman,   Senator Barnabas Gemade, has said.

    Gemade, who spoke at a ceremony in Abuja, to commemo-rate the partnership between the FHA and a private developer, Bauhaus International Limited (BIL), said the deal would lead to the construction of Rockville Garden Estate, comprising 260 housing units in Guzape in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The estate, said   to be a smart city, will be made up of detached duplexes, twin duplexes, terrace houses, two bedrooms, and  one bedroom luxury apartments. The project has a completion period of 30 months.

    He said: “This noble gesture is aimed at housing at least 260 families and is by no means a small feat considering the economic, business environment and current acute shortage of funds.” He stressed the importance of the National Assembly working in partnership with stakeholders to explore different interventions and bridge the housing gap at all levels and build more than 10 million housing units in the country.

    Also speaking, the FHA Managing Director, Prof Mohammed Al-Amin, said the Authority intends to achieve greater efficiency in housing delivery, encourage the use of modern technology, as well as the  injection of private sector funding into the sector.

    He said the project was planned to add a minimum of 1,500 housing units to the FCT housing stock. It sits on a portion of the FHA’s 100 hectares of land situated across two districts of Apo and Guzape. The land was acquired for housing development for the medium and high income groups.

    Al-Amin expressed the hope that on completion, the estate would provide a safe, comfortable, attractive and functional shelter, utilising the ambient terrain and a functional neighbourhood. He said  the FHA has developed not less than 15,000 housing units in the FCT since 1991. FHA, he further revealed, initiated the private, public partnership model of housing delivery following its lean financial muscle to deliver on her mandate was limited.

    The Executive Chairman of BIL, Victor Onukwugha, remarked that housing all over the world has become a hydra-headed socio-economic problem that needs to be tackled frontally. He therefore assured that Rockville Gardens Estate will be fitted with smart technology-sensors embedded in streets and homes, Wi-Fi broadcasts and other information and communication technologies for lifestyle living and also provide serenity, and security for its residents.

  • ‘Why Lagos Assembly is merging eight laws’

    ‘Why Lagos Assembly is merging eight laws’

    The Chairman of the Environment Committee of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Saka Fafunmi, spoke with OZIEGBE OKOEKI on why the House is considering an executive bill seeking to merge eight laws on the environment and what the state will benefit from the amendment.

    Why are you merging the eight environmental laws in Lagos State?

    The intendement of the state for choosing to have a compendium of all the laws stems from the fact that there is need for the state to embrace the challenges that we are confronting. Basically, you will agree with me that the exigencies of the moment does not give room for state alone to take care of our environmental needs and as such state is looking at how we can bring other parties. The law as it is does not make provision for private sector or individual or any stakeholder to participate or contribute in managing the environment. But as a necessity we feel that we need to amend the law so that we can have a trust fund through individuals, stakeholders and well-meaning Nigerians, and major players in the environment can contribute to the growth and development of the environment where they operate which the former law essentially did not address. And there is a need because of the down-turn in the economy, the global melt-down all over, there is a need for us to allow private participation or through a concessionaire to come in and fill the gap where we feel that our efforts or the efforts of the local contractors are grossly inadequate. You will agree with me that, despite our various attempts to ensure a clean environment in Lagos, you still go to some parts of Lagos and you wonder if you are in Lagos. And in a way, as a government, the governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has zero tolerance to filthy environment. He feels that environment as of a right, that every citizen of Lagos should have a serene environment, because you and I understand the fact that what you throw at the environment that the environment throws back at you. And some times the way the environment throws it back at us we might not and most times we don’t have the capacity to absolve the effect.

    Is that why you are merging the laws?

    And in a way we feel that there is essentially need for us  to improve on our environment; that leads to the need for us to have a compendium of our laws so as to obliterate every form of overlap in the discharge of the statutory functions under this law. And more importantly to say that we are able to have a compendium of law for ease of referencing in the court and outside the court. Anybody should be able to pick the law on environment and see everything as it affects the environment. So the bulk of what we are doing, the proposal that the ministry brought to us and the office of the Attorney-General for the state was tilting towards repealing certain sections of the law and keeping some areas. But looking at the law of LAWMA and some other agencies, the reforms there are quite remarkable, that as the chairman of the committee, for me to even import all the relevant laws into one document so as to address issues of, to prevent overlap among other things and have one law that would address all issues of environment. And I think it is in the best interest of any investor who wants to know anything about Lagos state, and Lagos being the state of excellence and the trail blazer, you know we break new grounds in everything in the country and that is why we show that this is another ground breaking law. Because if you go to any other state it is possible you will see their law in different statue. But we are saying look, Lagos, for ease of referencing, administration, doing the business of governance and environment let us have these laws in one document.

    The import of the bill is that about eight agencies or more will come under one management when it eventually becomes law. Will that not be too cumbersome for the management?

    We have seriously looked at that even at the executive briefing and we know that we shall do justice to that. The essence of having agencies in place is for them to operate and prevent every form of bureaucracy in their process. An agency is set up to perform certain task and obligations and when you now want to bring all of them under the ambit of one man as you have rightly identified, we have looked at it, that is not the intendement. The intendement is for the man to do supervisory role.

     

  • Police and new Lagos traffic laws

    Governor Ambode has in a little over a year  justified the confidence reposed on him by Lagosians who during the last election, chose him over  JimiAgbaje, currently engaged in a public brawl with Bode George, his ‘father’ over PDP chairmanship. I believe he has also so far proved he is a worthy successor to his trail-blazing predecessors. Ambode remains a silent operator allowing his creativity and resourcefulness to shine through the quality of governance. Determined to outstrip the giant strides of his predecessors, his Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)projected target for 2017 is N30billion, a great leap from the paltry N600m Bola Tinubu inherited in 1999 and even the humongous N17b he inherited from Fashola, his immediate predecessor. The Nation’s Sam Omatseye describes him as ‘Nigeria’s alpha governor’ whose Lagos ‘is the only vibrant state in the federation’.

    Ambode understands insecurity is the greatest threat to a mega city. His administration therefore went ahead in February to inaugurate a new traffic laws and relevant punishments in an effort to build on the security architecture he inherited.  Speaking on behalf of the governor during its inauguration, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Atilade, the Chief Judge of Lagos State was specific on the targets of the government new crusade. “Those who choose to make life difficult for other people, especially on our roads; those who engage in flagrant disregard or violation of traffic rules with impunity; break traffic rules at will and cause needless traffic snag, drive against traffic and beat the traffic lights, destroy traffic furniture and infrastructure, drive across the road median and through their lawlessness and irresponsible actions, daily inflict pains, grieve and sorrow on fellow citizens.” These “few recalcitrant and obstinate drivers and road users who impede businesses, maim innocent people or send people to their early graves”, the administration swore to battle on behalf of Lagosians.

    Some of the new 11 laws and their attendant punishment include ‘One-Way’ driving which attract a penalty of three years; abandoning vehicle on highway which attracts a fine of N50,000 or three years imprisonment, or both; Motorcycle riding against traffic, smoking while driving, disobeying traffic control, riding motor cycle without crash helmet etc. each of which attracts a fine of N20,000. Many believe the fines are harsh and the intended objectives – whether deterrence or to raise revenues for the state – are nebulous and unattainable. But most Lagosians trust Ambode and therefore have no quarrel with government over the new crusadeto free the people from the menace of ill-bred motorists. It was in this spirit I had sarcastically advised a neighbour who complained two weeks back that his daughter was fleeced of N6,000 for driving with expired vehicle licence by some policemen in Ikeja, an offence outside the new traffic laws, that he and his daughter must learn to be good citizens by having their vehicle papers renewed as at when due.

    Little did I realize the joke was on me until I became a victim last Friday. I was flagged down by one Inspector who by her name tag is probably from Edo North at about 2.30 p.m, a few metres from Ikeja LGA secretariat. I enthusiastically handed over all my vehicle particulars even though she had demanded only for my drivers’ license believing everything was up to date. Moments later she said she was impounding my vehicle because my vehicle license expired few days earlier. Before I realized she was not joking, a police sergeant who by his name tag is of Benin extraction was inside my car ordering me to drive to their station next to Ikeja LGA office.

    At the station, I met about a dozen others engaged in an on-going negotiation anchored by a fair complexioned police woman. My offence, which is driving with expired vehicle licence, I was told, attracts a fine of N20,000 at the Alausa mobile court. Being a Friday, if I failed to come back by 4pm, my car would be impounded until Monday with a possibility of it attracting a demurrage fine of N10,000. I could save myself all the trouble with an option of paying a police fine of N5.000. I craved their indulgence to collect the amount from a nearby ATM machine. They obliged.

    With the illegal police fine collected in the presence of everyone by the sergeant, my impounded car was released. In less than 10 minutes and armed with my renewed vehicle licence obtained from the LGA office next to the police station, I returned and insisted on reporting the extortion to the DPO. As expected, I was told I could only seethe officer incharge of traffic offences.  After patiently listening to my tales, he said neither he nor the DPO sent anyone to collect money on their behalf. He admitted however that there are rotten eggs in the lower cadre of the police but quickly added they were laid by the matured chickens currently in charge of affairs of the police. He then wanted to know if my mission was to retrieve my N5,000.But remembering the great Zik’s admonition that it is only a mad man who argues with an armed Nigerian police, I told him my mission was to find out from the DPO what is being done to stop the extortion of Nigerians which was going on with impunity under his nose.

    Aswe stood talking beside one of the new vehicles procured by Lagos State with public fund to wage the new crusade, harmless members of the public were streaming in and out of the office where bargaining and haggling take place before extortion. In the little over 30 minutes I spent in Ikeja Police station, I did not see a single “danfo” bus driver, the notorious traffic offender among those arrested for traffic offences. Of course none of the accosted traffic offenders needed to go to Alausa to pay fine. Not even a woman who was tongue-lashed and dismissed as ‘ the archetypal troublesome Benin woman who always wants to prove she knows the law more than the police’, for insisting that the FRSC and VIOare the two bodies empowered by law to arrest those who drive with expired vehicle licences and not the police, was sent to Alausa. The woman later confessed she parted with N6,000 for her own double-barreled offence- driving with expired drivers’ licence and expired motor vehicle licence.

    The Ikeja encounter I have since learnt is what goes on in police stations across Lagos. To prevent the Nigeria Police, which as structured can be loyal to neither the nation-state nor its constituent units, drawing a wedge between him and the Lagos citizens, Ambode must excuse the police from the handling of traffic offences while he embarks on massive investment in LASTMA.  First, traffic is a local affair all over the world except in Nigeria where the federal government, blinded by a desire to control all aspects of our life forgets that the answer to some of our current challenges such as gathering intelligence about members of avengers, checking the menace of the so-called Fulani herdsmen or cattle rustlers and consolidating the gains we have made in the liberated north-east is local policing.

    By the time the federal government wakes up from its slumber and realizes that restructuring the bungling and ineffective Nigerian police is inevitable, Ambode’s investments on LASTMA would have started to yield dividends for Lagos State.

  • Peterside: IOCs must obey cabotage, other laws

    Peterside: IOCs must obey cabotage, other laws

    The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Dr. Dakuku Peterside, has warned that violation of cabotage and environmental laws by the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the country will attract sanctions.

    Peterside who spoke when he engaged representatives of the IOCs in Lagos on ways of fostering a closer synergy to develop the economy,  urged the IOCs to be mindful of all existing laws and regulations in the discharge of their duties as applicable sanctions will be meted out to erring operators.

    He warned that actions such as flouting of Cabotage Act, negative impact to the environment from oil exploration activities, non payment of statutory levies due to the government and inadequate information sharing shall attract strict sanctions.

  • Illegal immigrant ‘exploited genital mutilation laws to stay in Britain’

    An illegal immigrant from Nigeria was granted leave to remain in Britain after falsely alleging that her daughters would be subjected to female genital mutilation if they were sent back.

    A High Court judge ruled that the three girls, aged 13, 10 and seven, needed protection from their father after hearing claims he was making arrangements for them to be “cut”, the London Telegraph reported.

    In a landmark case, the girls became the first subjects of a female genital mutilation (FGM) protection order, by the British courts.

    But that decision has now been overturned after a different judge dismissed the claim, describing it as part of an “immigration scam”.

    The case will raise concerns that more illegal migrants could seek to dishonestly take advantage of tough new rules aimed at protecting young girls from barbaric FGM practices.

    The family arrived in Britain in 2012 on a two-year visitor visa but when the husband returned to Nigeria, the woman stayed on with the children.

    Last summer, she twice failed to persuade the Home Office to allow her to remain in the UK, but then 19 days later made the claims about her daughters facing the threat of FGM.

    Mr Justice Holman said despite only hearing one side of the story the threat was so great the family should be allowed to remain.

    But following the decision, the father travelled to London to deny that he had ever intended to subject the girls to FGM and a different judge declared that the woman had “fundamentally and dishonestly misrepresented the true position”.

    Mr Justice MacDonald said it was “more likely than not” that the allegations had been part of an “immigration scam”.

    The judge also ruled that the children should no longer live with their mother in London but be cared for by their father – and he has given the man permission to move the youngsters to Nigeria.

    The judge concluded that the woman was lying when she claimed to have been subjected to FGM.