To pass the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill,
senators received kickbacks in form of job slots and cash reward from
the promoters of the proposed paramilitary organization, PREMIUM TIMES
can report.
Scores of senators received at least seven employment slots each to
back the bill, which was passed to, amongst other things, create the
Nigerian Peace Corps as the country’s newest law enforcement agency.
Some of the lawmakers considered key to the passage of the law got as much as 500 slots, our findings show.
Other senators received cash rewards for their acquiescence, multiple
senators, including those who benefited, told PREMIUM TIMES.
The bribery scheme became so brazen that some senators who were
members of the committees that worked on the bill pointedly accused each
other of being bought by the Peace Corps.
But the leadership of the Senate quickly weighed in, made peace
amongst the feuding senators and hushed up the case, consequently saving
the upper chamber from another major embarrassment, our sources said.
But the Peace Corps denied offering bribes to lawmakers to secure the
major milestone in its decade-long quest to become a government agency.
“At no point did our organization offered any bribes to lawmakers,”
Milicent Umoru, the group’s spokesperson, told PREMIUM TIMES Thursday.
“The bill actually suffered a whole lot before it was finally adopted a
few days ago.”
Both chambers of the National Assembly passed the bill “because they
see it as necessary to curb acute unemployment amongst Nigerian youth,”
she added. It remains unclear Saturday whether members of the House of
Representatives also took bribes to pass the bill.
The Senate approved the harmonized version of the controversial bill
on Tuesday, despite deep skepticism from its own Committee on Judiciary,
Human Rights and Legal Matters that the bill offers virtually no unique
service to the public.
David Umaru, the committee chairman who was mandated by the Senate to
look into the significance of the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill, delivered a
scathing review of the paramilitary group when he laid the findings of
his committee before the Senate Tuesday.
“The powers, functions, e.t.c., of the Peace Corps call for concern
and this committee would wish that they are subjected to further
examination,” Mr. Umaru, APC-Niger East, said.
The senator said the attempts by promoters of the Peace Corps to make
government absorb it was strange and starkly different from the
approach of its sister organization in the United States.
“The American Peace Corps, which is used as a model, does not operate
as a permanent and pensionable employment as intended in Nigeria under
this proposed legislation,” Mr. Umaru said. “Rather, its employment is
for a limited period of five years only for regular employees and 24
months for volunteers.”
Yet, Mr. Umaru went on to recommend that the Senate should proceed
with passing the harmonized version of the Peace Corps Bill, clearing
the way for its onward transfer to the president’s desk for assent.
Dickson Akoh, Peace Corps’ national commandant, said his
organizations would offer what the American Peace Corps offers and even
more.
The Peace Corps will achieve capacity building for youth creativity
and intervention; capacity building for youth development and
empowerment in agriculture; and peace education and conflict resolution,
Mr. Akoh said.
But a majority of existing government agencies expressed strong opposition to the creation of the organization.
At a House committee hearing during consideration of the bill, the
Office of the Head of Service (HoS) said several government agencies
with similar mandates as Peace Corps already exist and listed the
Ministry of Youth Development and Ministry of Employment, Labour and
Productivity and Ministry of Environment as examples.
Other existing law enforcement agencies include Ministry of
Education, Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, National
Orientation Agency, National Poverty Eradication Programme and, National
Directorate of Employment. The list is far from being exhausted, the
head of the service said.
Consequently, the HoS urged lawmakers to consider “the implications
of the proposed creation of Nigerian Peace Corps on the cost of
governance and duplication of duties of existing agencies.”
Law enforcement agencies have taken measures against the Peace Corps
since at least 2003 when the State Security Service arrested Mr. Akoh
and shut down his offices across the country.
He resumed operation in 2007. But when the SSS clamped down on his
organization again, he launched a civil lawsuit which has dragged since
then.
This year alone, the police have detained Mr. Akoh at least twice.
At the first incident, armed officers from police, SSS and the
Nigerian Army stormed the head office of the Peace Corps and took Mr.
Akoh and more than 40 others into custody.
The head office was also shut by the police and has not been reopened ever since.
Mr. Akoh said he had won at least 11 cases against different security
agencies over the past 15 years. The police will neither confirm nor
deny this assertion.
While several agencies under executive control have openly expressed
opposition to the Peace Corps, President Muhammadu Buhari and Acting
President Yemi Osinbajo have not said whether they will assent to the
bill or reject it.
Inquiries directed to presidential spokespersons, including Garba
Shehu, Laolu Akande and Femi Adesina, went unanswered throughout
Thursday.
Senate sources with knowledge about the tactics of the Peace Corps
told PREMIUM TIMES the group’s promoters gave millions of naira to some
senators.
“Apart from the cash bribes that they offered, they even gave some
key lawmakers who worked to ensure that the bill was passed more than
1000 job slots,” a senator said.
But PREMIUM TIMES could not confirm if Mr. Umaru received cash bribes from the Peace Corps.
Promoters of the Peace Corps also put pressure on some lawmakers through their constituents.
“They asked our constituents to inundate us with calls about jobs prospects in the Peace Corps,” the senator said.
Senate spokesperson, Abdullahi Aliyu, did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES request for comments on the allegations.
But Enyinnaya Abaribe, PDP-Abia South, denied receiving any bribes from the Peace Corps.
The “allegation is beneath contempt,” he said.
“None at all,” he said while responding to a specific question on whether he received cash bribes.
Mr. Akoh was said to raised funds from the sale of forms to
unemployed youth seeking job placement in his organization. He has been
selling employment forms to prospective recruits at N1,500 per copy.
But he told PREMIUM TIMES in January that the N40,000 he collects
from prospective members was meant for registration, training,
procurement of kits, amongst others.
“The ICPC has investigated us in 2004 and established that we’re not extorting money from the youth,” he added.
Other than the possible employment opportunities that an established
Peace Corps could bring to Nigerian youth, there appears to be no other
unique reason for its creation.
But even “this can be achieved by strengthening existing agencies and
not necessarily creating a new one so as not to overburden the federal
government,” Mr. Umaru said.
Yet, the senator declined requests from PREMIUM TIMES seeking to know
why he urged his colleagues to allow the Peace Corps Bill scale through
in disregard of the findings of his committee.