Peace Corps Bill still on course NPC
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we are not unaware of the grand conspiracy by some security agencies againstthe peace corpsespecially the police department of state services dss and civildefencein theiradversarial memos to the presidency to thwart assent to the bill. thisconspiracy whichwasalsomanifested in form of opposition during the public hearings conducted by both chambers of the nass on the bill was roundly defeated by superior arguments of over 500 oral and written memoranda submitted during the public hearings in the1 the nigerian peace corps has reacted to recent reports which implied that president muhammadu buhari has rejected the peace corps bill1 the report had insinuated that by not signing the bill 30 working days after it was transmitted in december 2017 the president had denied accent to the bill1 however umoru insisted that some of the bills that were sent to the president along with the peace corps bill had been rejected as the president expressly wrote the national assembly to convey the reasons why those bills were rejected1 the corps stressed that the peace corps bill was not part of the rejected ones and as such it was wrong for the medium to have published such a report1 read the full text of the statement below1 re buhari rejects nigerian peace corps bill1 whenourattention was drawn tothe aforementioned report in the vanguard newspaper of saturday february 17 2018 which was written by mr.sonidaniel the northern regional editor of the newspaper and mr.emmanovuakkporieourinitial reaction wasthat of disbelief1 but after reading the entire report it suddenlydawned on usthat the authors deliberately elected to sensationalize the caption with a view to selling the newspaper and on that notewewish to assuretheteeming members of thepeace corps of nigeria andmillions ofourwell-wishers nationwide that thewriters merely embarked on a voyage ofinterpretation of the constitution1 the truth of the matteris that out of about nine billsthat were transmitted to the president together with that of the nigerian peace corps the president rejected three and returned same to the national assemblynass stating reasons why he rejected them. and of course the nigerian peace corps bill was not part of the rejected ones1 in a statement issued on saturday by the public relations office of the corps millicent umoru the npc described the report as misleading and a voyage of interpretation of the constitution1 the major plank of this conspiracy is that the functions of the nigerianpeacecorps npcbill overlap that of the nigerian police and nigerian security and civildefencecorps nscdc which is far from the truth. nigerians should watch out for ourfull pageadvertorial on this issue inthe nation the sun daily trust and tribunenewspaperson monday 19thfebruary 2018. the advertorial clearly articulates the statutory functions of the police civildefenceand that of the nigerian peace corps1 we wish tocorrect the erroneous impression created by this report whose contents are just the authors interpretation ofthe provisions of the lawpresidentmuhammadubuharigcfrhas notassented to or rejected the npc bill.and ifeventhe president rejectsthe bill he will communicate same to the nass stating reasons for doing so1 moreover the spokespersons of both chambers of the nass senatorsabiabdullahisenate and hon.abdulrazaknamdashouse of representatives have clarified the issuesas far as the law on this matter is concerned1 the authors also questioned the legal status of the peace corps a position that smacks of mischief. for purposeof clarity peace corps of nigeria was dulyincorporated bythe corporate affairs commission under the companies and allied matters act cap1990 part casnigerianleadership and marshalcorps but changed to peace corps of nigeria in 2002 in accordance with thecompanies and allied matters act.so its legality has never been called to question and even if the bill is not assented to that will not1 that this report is coming out a few days after the house committee on public petition gave the corps directive to take-over itsheadquarters that has been under lock and key by the policesince february 2017 a directive thatwasalmost executed before the intervention of the fct commissioner of police is suspicious.how sad1 sadder still is that in spite ofseveralcourt judgments pronouncing peace corps as a legal entity including recent verdicts by two different federal high courtsjudgesthe antagonists of the corps have continued to disregard these valid ordersby refusing to unsealthe peace corpsoffice.somuch forthe rule oflaw1 in conclusion we request all pcn stakeholders and indeed the entire nigerian youth to disregard any erroneous malicious and none-evidence based information against the npc bill1 patriot millicentumoru1 corps public relations officer1