Senate moves to review Nigerian laws

Senate on Tuesday, mandated its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, to interface with the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation to initiate the process of revising the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN) 2004.

The Upper Chamber passed the resolution  following its consideration and adoption of a motion by Senator Kaka Shehu Lawan (APC Borno Central)

The Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), are alphabetical compilation of laws operative in Nigeria which are updated regularly.

The compilation of the LFN was carried out under the authority of the Attorney General of the Federation, subject to the approval of the National Assembly through an Act.

Senator Shehu, while presenting the motion, said that the statutes in the LFN were enacted in different years before and after Nigeria’s independence even though they were all cited as “LFN 2004”.

He said that the LFN had remained unrevised for almost two decades, with the implication that the several laws enacted in Nigeria from 1 January 2003 till date remain excluded from the compilation.

According to the lawmaker, there was an attempt to revise the LFN in 2010 but the effort had no legal framework of the National Assembly approving it.

He also expressed concern that the continued non-revision of LFN has not only left numerous statutes out of the compilation but also retained many repealed statutes with attendant confusion and other negative impacts.

According to him, the non-compilation of the several federal statutes leads to a dearth of knowledge of many existing laws on the part of Nigerians, especially students, lecturers, researchers, lawyers, legislators, and judges among others.

He said that the revision of LFN was long overdue and as such would be in the interest of democratic governance in Nigeria to commence the revision process without further delay.