Senate Raises Alarm Over Illegal Publication

The Senate has condemned the illegal publication of the wrong version of the laws passed by the National Assembly (NASS) being sold in public places.

The Senate in a resolution also urged government printing press to print the authentic copies of the laws passed by the NASS.

The resolution was consequent upon a motion sponsored by Sen. Paulinus Igweh (PDP- Ebonye Central) entitled “Illegal Publication, Distribution and Sales of laws passed by the NASS.’’

Igweh noted with serious concern the speed with which different versions of any Bill assented to by the President quickly flooded the market.

He said that the existing law prescribed that “before an Act of the National Assembly is made public, it would have been duly gassetted which is a proof of the true copy”.

“And that section 5 of the Authentication Act Cap A2 LFN 2004 stipulates that the printing of any Act of the National Assembly shall be done by the government printer who shall endorse on the back that it is published by authority.

“That section 6 of the same Act stipulates that every Act of National Assembly published by authority shall be received in a court and all persons sufficient evidence that it has been assented to in the President’s name.

Igweh, however, said that contrary to these provisions, “some Nigerian publishers flood the streets of Nigeria with anonymous but fake copies of laws passed by the National Assembly.

He said sections of the 1999 Constitution (Amendments) and the Electoral Act Amendments Act 2010 had also been faked.

He, therefore, expressed worry that “some of the laws passed by the National Assembly have been bastardised by these printers.

Senators in their contributions expressed concern over the trend where hawkers publicly sell different wrong versions of the laws passed by the NASS.

They were unanimous in their submissions that the inability of the existing government printing press to remain functional to print copies of the gassetted laws for public consumption as the reason for the proliferation of the laws.

Sen. Joshua Lidani (PDP-Gombe) said: “I support this motion. It is timely but we should ask ourselves why these people are illegally publishing and selling wrong information to the public.

He explained that the simple reason was because of the non-functional state of government printing press to live up to its responsibilities.

Sen. Olufemi Lalehin (ACN-Oyo South) argued that these different versions of the laws in circulation was not good for the development of the judiciary. Lalehin noted that the trend was dangerous, especially when any error of punctuation mark would connote a different meaning in the interpretation of such a law.

The senators were unanimous in their views that government printing press and existing agencies charged with the responsibilities to regulate piracy and related matters to wake up and curtail the vice.

The Senate President, David Mark, in a remark said the seriousness of the act called for soul searching especially against the backdrop that existing agencies were not effective in their responsibilities.