Reps approve autonomy for local govt councils

The House of Representatives has voted in favour of local government autonomy.Out of the 339 lawmakers that voted for council's autonomy, 293 voted yes, 39 voted no and seven abstained.The lawmakers also voted overwhelmingly for the simplification of the process of state creation.The result of the voting was announced by the Clerk of the House as directed by the Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal at 10.34pm, Wednesday.As a result of the murmurs that accompanied the first result from some parts of the floor, the Speaker intervened by informing the lawmakers that the Clerk was not having the titles of the clauses in the result he was reading out.The Speaker took it upon himself to read out the titles of the clauses before the Clerk announced the result.