SAN FRANCISCO, February 27, (THEWILL) –Â President Muhammadu Buhari has rejected the proposed Peace Corps of Nigeria establishment bill.
The President’s rejection was conveyed in a letter which Yakubu Dogara, Speaker of the House of Representatives, read during plenary on Tuesday.
In the letter, Buhari cited security concerns and financial burden of funding the organisation by the government as his reasons for rejecting the bill.
THEWILL recalls that the National Assembly had passed the bill after a prolonged battle involving the organisation and the nation’s security agencies while majority of Senators have called for the signing of Nigeria Peace Corps Bill into law for purposes of intelligence gathering and adequate security at the grassroots.
THEWILL also recalls that copies of the bill, tagged ‘Nigerian Peace Corps (Establishment) Bill 2017, were transmitted to President by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Sani Omolori after the Senate passed the bill on November 25, 2016, shortly after the House of Representatives passed the same bill.
A conference committee of both chambers was inaugurated on December 8, 2016, to harmonise the bill and allow all serving members of the Peace Corps of Nigeria, both regular and volunteers, to be absolved into the Nigerian Peace Corps, at commencement.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian police, obviously against the Corps, stormed the Peace Corps headquarters on February 17, 2017 and arrested the head of the organisation, Dickson Akoh, and about 49 other members.
The police accused Mr. Akoh of using the Peace Corps, registered as a non-governmental organisation, to swindle young job seekers and operate as a para-military agency but Akoh denied the allegations and has since been granted bail by the Federal High Court in Abuja which ordered the Police to unseal the headquarters of the Peace Corps and pay N12.5 million as damages.
