Among them is the law to facilitate 24-hour power supply in the state.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) the new Laws include the
Lagos State Electric Power Reform Law, Amended Land Use Charge Law,
School of Nursing Law and Cooperative College Law.
Others are the Cancer Research Institute Law, Amended Customary Court
Law and the Yoruba Language Preservation and Promotion Law.
Giving details shortly after the governor signed the bills, the
Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr Olawale Oluwo, said
that the Power Sector Reform Law would allow the State Government to
intervene in major areas of the power value chain.
"One, the law puts the government in a position to be able to extend
our guarantee to private sector participants who will come and
generate power for us.
"By this guarantee, we are putting the balance sheet of our state on
the table and assuring investors that as they generate power, they
will get paid.
"Second is to help the distribution companies to upgrade their
infrastructure, because if they generate the power and their
infrastructure is still where it is today, clearly they will not have
the capacity to carry the incremental power.
"The third area of intervention is that it empowers us to be able to
open up the gas market in Lagos so that we can have gas on a
consistent basis.
"That is how we can attain the 24-hour power supply," he said.
Oluwo said the law would also enable the State Government to
collaborate with the distribution companies to collect tariff from
customers efficiently.
He said it would be in a way that the said guarantee will not
crystallise, while in the area of enforcement, the law will prevent
power theft.
"What has happened today is that the first power theft law in Nigeria
has been signed and this is the first time any government in Nigeria
will institutionalise the power theft law.
"It criminalises power infraction. What we have seen before is that
people tamper with and bypass meters and at the end of the day they
are arrested and nothing happens.
"But the new law provides for jail terms as well as fines and all
sorts of forbearance," he added
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