Dead residents or indigenes of Lagos, including landlords and land owners, are no longer allowed to be buried in their house premises or any other parts of residential areas.
As part of measures to prevent the transmission of communicable diseases across Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital, the state government has banned the burying of dead bodies within residential premises across the state.
This is coming as the state also prohibited the usage of residential areas as morgues, embalmment centers, and burial sites in the state.
The Executive Secretary of Lagos State Law Reform Commission, Ade Adeyemo, said that the prohibition had become imperative as part of measures to adjust to the 21st-century reality of preventing communicable diseases.
She explained that the commission arrived at the adopted measures after careful consideration and review of laws that address the immediate and peculiar needs of Lagosians at every point in time.
Speaking on the activities, achievements, and impact of the commission since its establishment, Adeyemo noted that the exigencies of coronavirus and need to prevent second wave spread of the deadly respiratory diseases necessitated the review.
According to her, the Law Reform Commission is saddled with the responsibility of reviewing and reforming laws with a view to effecting necessary changes to make them more modern, fair, just, efficient, accessible and bring them in consonance with the prevailing social and moral values of society.
“In this regard, the commission, after review, found it expedient to ensure that the Lagos State Public Health Law was expanded to include present-day disease outbreaks like the Ebola, Lassa fever, and other communicable diseases,” she added.
Furthermore, the Executive Secretary said that priority was being given to review and reform obsolete laws to meet the need of the present times.
“The very first compendium of laws in the State was the 1973 laws of Lagos State which was a merger of the laws that existed in the former Federal Territory of Lagos and those of Former Western Nigeria.
The present Law Reform Commission evolved out of the short term State Law Review Committees/Commissions saddled with the responsibilities of previous law reforms,” she said.
Adeyemo, however, said that some of the laws and bills that have been reviewed and forwarded to the House of Assembly for the benefit of the general public include the Animals Bill, Electric Power Sector Reform Law, Tenancy Bill, Real Estate Regulatory Bill, Lotteries and Gaming Authority Law and Law Enforcement Training Institute Bill, among others.
