AMENDED CONSTITUTION SEPARATES ATTORNEY GENERAL OF FEDERATION FROM MINISTER OF JUSTICE

• State Houses Of Assembly Get Financial Autonomy
THE Office of the Attorney General of the Federation has been effectively separated from that of the Minister of Justice, it emerged yesterday. 
Submitting their final resolutions on the various proposed amendments to the 1999 constitution to the National Assembly Friday, speakers of the 36 State Houses also confirmed that the States Houses of Assembly have approved the proposals that state legislature be allowed to be on the first line charge of the federation account.
By this, all States Houses of Assembly are automatically granted financial autonomy and would no longer have to depend on their State governors for their funding.
Chairman, Conference of Speakers of State Houses Assembly and Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Samuel Ikon, who submitted the resolutions to the leadership of the National Assembly in Abuja, also announced that the proposal for the establishment of the Office of Accountant-General of the Federal
Government was approved.
“Let me announce that, we have exceeded the required figure for financial autonomy for state legislature; we have also met the required figure for separation of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation from the Office of the Minister of Justice; I hope that sections not agreed to May find relevance in the future”, Ikon stressed.
And Senate President David Mark who presided over the 30-minute ceremony raised issues about the proposal to separate the local councils account from State accounts and ensured that funds meant for local councils get to them directly instead of making them dependent on States.
On noticing that no mention was made to this particular proposal by Ikon, Mark assured that the pursuit of LG Council autonomy is yet realizable in the life of the Seventh Senate, even as he commended the State Assemblies for mustering enough courage to approve financial autonomy themselves.
“I have not read the areas where you got the required figure to approve, but one of the other areas we seek your approval is Local Government autonomy. I don’t know if you have the courage to do it, but if you didn’t, it is a continuous exercise; if that is not passed, be rest assured that it will be passed before we all leave the National Assembly”, the SP noted.
The Senate President also acknowledged the speed with which the State Assemblies had attended to the recommended amendments, stressing, “I want to assure you and assure Nigerians that we in the National Assembly will also act very swiftly and we will do our own work as timely as possible”.
“Many Nigerians were of the opinion that we were not going to make any amendment in the Seventh Senate and in the Seventh democratic dispensation but having returned it to us now, you have made our work very easy regardless of the ones that have met the constitutional requirement for amendment”, he continued.
Source: Guardian