Legislative drafters can make or mar a country – AGF

The Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, has said Friday in Abuja that legislative drafters “can make or mar a country.”

Malami, who stated this in his remarks at the opening ceremony of a two-day Capacity Building for the Department of Legal Drafting of the Federal Ministry of Justice organised by the National Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), noted that “legislative drafters must be thoroughly trained and equipped in the art.”

According to the minister, “A legislative drafter can make or mar a country; hence, the need for constant training and re-training.”

Malami, who was represented at the occasion by the Solicitor General of the Federation and permanent secretary in the ministry, Adedayo Apata, also said “since a country is governed and sustained by law, drafters of legislation for the laws must be thorough and meticulous.”

“A country is governed and sustained by law. The character, wealth and advancement of a country are directly proportional to the quality of its law.

“In this time of ever constantly emerging internal and Cross-border issues such as kidnapping , terrorism, armed banditry, piracy, human trafficking, drug peddling, etc, training and re-training of draft persons to meet the legal demands of drafting appropriate laws cannot be overstated,” he said.

In his opening remarks, the director-general of NILDS, Prof. Abubakar Sulaiman, said the capacity building workshop was organised to sharpen the writing skills of legislative drafters in addressing the problem of poorly drafted legislations.

“Efficient legislative drafting leads to a better understanding of legislation and eases its interpretation by the judiciary. In the recent past, several bills have had to be returned by the President due to a range of issues, many of which were technical defects arising from poor drafting.”

Police foil attack on Katsina community, rescue 9

The Police Command in Katsina state said it foiled an attack on Kirijam village in Mahuta community, Dandume local government area of the state.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, SP Gambo Isa, said this in a statement on Friday in Katsina.

The statement read in part, “On July 1, at about 11.00 p.m., bandits in their numbers, shooting sporadically with AK 47 rifles, attacked Kirijam village, Mahuta Ward of Dandume LGA and kidnapped nine persons.

“On receipt of the report, the DPO of Dandume Division led a team of policemen and blocked their possible exit route at Kadawan Maikomo village, in Sabuwa LGA.”

It added that the bandits followed the route and fell into a police ambush, and that the team engaged the bandits in a fierce gun duel and successfully repelled the attack.

“The doggedness, uncommon courage and tactical operational strategy adopted by the Police officers made the bandits flee into the forest with varying degrees of bullet wounds. In the course of profiling the scene, all the nine abducted persons were rescued unhurt and some GSM phones and food items stolen from the village by the hoodlums were also recovered.”

According to the statement, the command is urging members of the public to cooperate with security agencies working at the frontline areas by giving them credible information on bandits and their collaborators.

“The public should assist the security agencies with credible information, especially on those supplying criminals with arms and ammunition, informants and other essential commodities.

“The Command assures members of the public that they remain resolute and committed in the ongoing fight against recalcitrant bandits until they are arrested and dealt with according to the extant laws of the land.”

(NAN)