Law officers at the Ogun State Ministry of Justice have been charged to make use of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Justice sector, to improve on the legislative drafting.
The State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Akingbolan Adeniran gave the charge in Abeokuta, during an in-house training on the use of ICT in Legislative Drafting, organised for Law officers.
Adeniran who said the training became necessary to enhance professionalism, noted that relevant capacity building had been done and yielding positive outcomes, stating that “as the world is moving to a data age, we want our law officers to become professional drafters”.
In his contribution, the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Mr. Adeyemi Adewole pointed out that State Counsels should have the basic knowledge of legislative drafting and its application to make other work easier.
Adewole urged them to pay attention to all the rudiments involved in legislative drafting, to avoid difficulties when saddled with drafting responsibility, adding that creative drafters would save the government lots of money.
In his lecture, a Lawyer at the National Institute of Legislative Drafting, Abuja, Dr. Tony Clinto stated that poorly drafted laws would have errors, which could lead to litigation, as re-drafting would cost a lot of money and negative outcomes, noting that bills must conform with the constitution.
Dr. Clinto pointed out that every bill must have four parts, which are preliminary, substantive or administrative, miscellaneous and final provision, adding that only qualified lawyers who went through a formal training could end up being a legislative drafter. In his remark, the Director of Legal Drafting in the Ministry, Mr. James Mafe said the training would improve the efficiency of counsels for better turnout in terms of legislative process, appreciating the State Governor for the prompt approval of the training.
DAILY DIGEST 