Firstly I congratulate Prof. Sylvia Ifemeje on her nomination as the incoming Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Anambra State.

I feel concerned by the fact that the Revised Laws of Anambra State is obsolete and in disarray. The laws were last revised in 1991.

Between 1992 and today is about 30 years. Many of the laws in that 1991 edition of Laws or Anambra State have been overtaken by events. Some have been repealed outrightly.

All the vital legislations enacted after 1991 are apparently not included in the 1991 revised laws since they were made after the revision of the state laws.

Some of these new legislations l, although potent and valid, have receive very little publicity to the extent that it becomes very difficult to lay hands on copies of these laws. The government printers at Awka are rather unhelpful in this regard; a visit to the government press at Awka will convince you.

These days we find a laughable situation where government lawyers/prosecutors take undue advantage of the non-availability of some of these legislations to score cheap victory in court. Counsel could cite new legislations and yet refuse to make same available to the adverse party. It creates the impression that the laws are esoteric. This scenario plays out mostly in revenue matters.

I am aware that many other pragmatic States in Nigeria have been revising and updating their state Laws on a fairly regular interval.

To worsen the case in Anambra State, the obsolete Revised Laws of Anambra State, 1991 appears to have been out of print and out of circulation for some time. This has created a rather bizarre situation whereby bottleggers illicitly reprint these legislations and sell same to the unsuspecting public. A situation whereby the legal community has to resort to pirated version of Laws of Anambra State leaves much to be desired.

It is on this not that I implore the Prof. Sylvia Ifemeje, the incoming Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, to consider law reform and revision of the laws of Anambra State as the a first priority task upon assumption of office.

Not just to publish a comprehensive edition of the Laws of Anambra State, a further step should be taken as to make them readily available on the internet. As of today, one can hardly search for and find any piece of Anambra State legislation on the internet. This is simply an aberration that must be nipped in the bud.

May it please the incoming Attorney General of Anambra State to consider these.

KAINE ANANWUNE ACArb.

Chairman, NBA Anaocha Branch.