Why National Assembly should pass Peace Corps Bill now – Dickson Akoh 

National Commandant of Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), Professor Dickson Akoh, has said the frequent kidnapping of school children by armed bandits would be a thing of the past, if the Bill establishing the Nigerian Peace Corps is given speedy passage at the National Assembly and eventually assented to by President Muhammad Buhari.

Akoh said members of the Corps had been sufficiently trained to tackle insecurity and other social vices around educational institutions in the country.

The Bill for an Act to establish the Nigerian Peace Corps, to give legal backing to the existing PCN under Prof. Akoh, passed second reading at the Nigerian Senate December 2020, while the House of Representatives is set for its final passage.

President Buhari had in 2018, declined assent to the Bill passed by the 8th National Assembly, citing paucity of funds and duplication of roles of existing agencies.

The Bill, however, has been re-gazetted by both chambers in the 9th Assembly, after “the grey areas raised by the President had been addressed”.

At a world press briefing in Abuja on Monday, the Peace Corps Boss called on National Assembly to quickly pass the Bill for onward assent of the President.

“In view of the heightening insecurity challenges in our country, I strongly appeal to the leadership of the National Assembly to fast-track the passage of the Bill and for Mr. President to assent to this all-important Bill.

“This will indeed, enable the Peace Corps to deploy its Officers and Men to educational institutions as they have been adequately trained and oriented to serve as supporting agents of social order by providing a second line of public safety”, Akoh said.

He explained further that, the Peace Corps can “adequately address insecurity in schools by upholding bottom-up surveillance through monitoring, observation, evaluation and to detect, collate and analyse intelligence data on matters that may likely cause breach of peace and security within the school community and properly transmit same to appropriate Security Agencies for preventive actions”.

Statistics have shown that a total of 1,140 school children/students have been abducted in the period of seven years, ranging from Chibok to the most current incident in Jangede.

Some of the abducted students were either killed, forcefully married away, maimed or remained traumatized even after regaining freedom.

By Yemi Itodo