Lagos Assembly Presents One Year Scorecard, Passes 88 Resolutions, 8 Bills , Unveils E-Presence

                                                                                                                                                                         The Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday presented its scorecard disclosing that it has passed 88 Resolutions and eight Bills into law in the first year of the current Assembly.  Speaker of the Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa,  who spoke with senior journalists and members of Civil Society Organisations as part of activities marking the first year of the present Assembly, said one of the Bills passed into law, the Local Government Administration Amendment law, came as a private member bill. Obasa himself brought the bill.

The seven other bills passed into law were also initiated as private member bills by seven members of the Assembly. Obasa equally revealed that three other private member bills were awaiting second reading by the house, which has 31 committees.

It will be recalled that the 8th Assembly was inaugurated on June 8, 2015, Obasa, while answering questions on recent news report that House sent away some journalists from the Press Corp, defended the decision of the Assembly to effect a change of guard in. He said some of the journalists were no longer serving the purpose for which their employers sent them to the House. He equally said some of them were no longer reporting for any medium but want to stay on in the House for no just cause.

He said on Wednesday: “We did not send any member of the press away. “We work closely with journalists. “But we discovered that some of them do not even have any medium they work for again. “Some have stayed here for over 10 years and still want to continue despite the fact that they are no longer adding value to our work here. “So it is not a question of victimisation.”

On the Freedom of Information Bill that the Assembly is yet to domesticate, Obasa said the House was working on it. He said not passing the Bill yet does not amount to not wanting it.

Rather, he said: “We are working on it. “It is not because we don’t want the law, but it has a process it must go through.” Speaking on the tenure of the Local Government Councils, Obasa said the House was aware that they had overstayed their allowed time. He, however, said the House had to make a choice between extending the tenure of the local government administration and conducting an election to bring in a properly elected government. He said the House opted for proper election. Obasa, however, said this was being delayed by a few things yet to be put in place.

One of it, he said, was that the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission was yet to get the Voters Register from the Independent National Electoral Commission for the conduct of the election. He said the House was also waiting for the delineation of constituencies and the full composition of the LASIEC.Obasa said the newly-nominated Chairman of the Commission, Justice Ayotunde Phillips, will appear before the House for screening on Thursday (today).

He said once all these processes are completed, the State would be set for the election of officials at the local government level.

The 8th Assembly has also gone a step further ahead of others in the country, activities of the House can now be projected on all social media including, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram while live streaming of proceedings will also commence very soon, the Speaker disclosed.