FEC okays 3 bills to strengthen electoral process

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) yesterday approved three bills – Constitution Alteration Bill 2018, Electoral Act amendment Bill 2018 and Electoral Offences Commission Bill 2018 – to strengthen electoral process in the country.
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr.
Abubakar Malami, who disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja, said the draft bills would soon be forwarded to the National Assembly for passage into law.
He said the bills, when passed into law by the lawmakers, would ensure that the independence of nation’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not subjected to the directives or control of any authority.
Also speaking, Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Muhammad Musa Bello, said the council also agreed to set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee to investigate tremors that hit some parts of the FCT.
He said members of the committee would be drawn from the Ministry of FCT, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.
“From our discussion it’s realized that there is tremendous amount of local capacity in various government agencies where we have experts who would be able to study this.
“Accordingly, Council has decided to set up a small ministerial committee with membership from the Ministry of Science and Technology because one or two of their agencies have had expertise with respect to this kind of phenomenon, and then the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing ; Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and of course the FCT.
“I want to use this opportunity to reassure that there is no course for concern and as a matter of fact within the vicinity of the Mpape area the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing would send in their experts to just do some structural assessment of the properties around there,” he said.