The Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC) has inaugurated the editors’ working groups for the 2018 revision of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (LFN), 2004.
The Acting Chairman of NLRC, Professor Jummai Audi, charged the editors not to tamper with any proviso or punctuation that can alter the intended meaning of the provisions.
Some of the members of the Editors Group include: Professors Ernest Ojukwu, Daniel Odele, Rufai Muktar, Deji Adekunle, Peter Akpeyi, Ali Idris and Kabir Aminu.
She said the revision exercise stops with laws in existence as at 2018, as such, even if the law has been repealed in 2019 it should not be removed, she told the editors.
She said the commission hopes to print the revised laws for submission to the Attorney General of Federation and Minister of Justice within the first quarter of 2019.
In the terms of reference for the editors, they were charged to edit the incorporated amendments, their schedules and subsidiary legislations. They were also directed to: renumber the sections of the principal Act in the inserted amendment section where necessary; and ensure that obsolete/spent laws were omitted.
They were also asked to ensure the removal of provisions of laws that have been repealed by the competent court (Supreme Court) and to include new or omitted Acts.
Explaining the procedure that led to the editing stage, Prof. Audi said, “The commission collected gazetted copies of various laws of the Federation from the National Assembly, the Federal Government Press, Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government. It then constituted the various working groups made up of experts and the commission’s staff for different stages of the law revision exercise.
“The first Expert Working Groups identified the various laws for revision and made recommendations thereto. It subsequently inaugurated the Expert Review Working Groups who reviewed the recommendations made by the Law Revision Expert Working Groups. Thereafter, it inaugurated the Expert Drafting Working Groups who drafted the revised and consolidated laws.
“The next stage of the law revision is proof reading and editing of the draft revised laws to ensure that all necessary corrections authorized under the Terms of Reference are reflected in the draft laws,” Prof Audi stated.
