Constitution amendment: Ogun lawmakers okay legislative, judicial autonomy bills, 42 others
Members of Ogun House of Assembly have conducted concurrent voting on the 44 bills transmitted to the House by the National Assembly.
Reports state that the lawmakers approved the bills providing financial independence for state houses of assembly, state judiciary and local government, among others.
The approval followed the adoption of the report of the Committee of the Whole House, chaired by the Speaker, Olakunle Oluomo, and presented by his Deputy, Akeem Balogun, during plenary in Abeokuta on Thursday.
Balogun, who moved the motion for adoption of the report, was seconded by the Majority Leader, Yusuf Sheriff and supported by other lawmakers.
The report partly read: “Having carefully listened to the in-depth review of the bills, the stakeholders present at a public hearing on Wednesday took turn to give their reasons for urging the House to favour all the proposed alterations vide the bills, as presented.
“It is their belief that the democratic tenets in our constitution will be further strengthened as well as deepened.
The legislative process at the plenary saw to the consideration and adoption of the alteration bills by the committee of the whole house.
The lawmakers, thereafter, embarked on physical voting for each of the bills, which was counted by the Clerk and Head of Legislative Service, Deji Adeyemo.
Other bills approved by the lawmakers included: a bill to abrogate the State Joint Local Government Account and provide for a special account into which all allocations due to local government councils from the Federation Account would be paid.
It was reported that a bill to establish local government as a tier of government and guarantee their democratic existence and tenure was also passed.
The lawmakers also supported the bill to compel persons to obey or comply with legislative summons and as well as the one seeking the establishment of State Security Council.
The assembly equally passed a bill seeking to establish the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federal Government, separate from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
Another bill passed was the one establishing the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Attorney-General of the State separate from the Office of the Minister of Justice or Commissioner for Justice in the state.
The lawmakers also supported the passage of a bill to provide for independent candidacy in presidential, governorship, national assembly, state houses of assembly and local government elections.
