Almost four years after Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent to the bill seeking to establish the Nigeria Peace Corps, the Senate has again passed the bill.
The Informant247 had reported that the bill was passed by the eighth Senate in late 2017 but President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent to the legislation in February 2018, citing security concerns as one of the reasons for his decision.
He had also cited paucity of funds and duplication of duties of existing security agencies by the proposed corps as his main reasons.
Ndume, however, reintroduced the bill to the ninth Senate on December 17, 2019.
The bill passed third reading after Sadiq Umar, chairman of the senate committee on interior, presented a report.
While presenting the report on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, Umar said his committee received “hundreds of memoranda” from stakeholders who are supporting the passage of the legislation.
The senator said the bill if passed and assented to by the president, would help tackle rising unemployment in the country.
After presenting his report, the senate went into the “committee of the whole” where they considered and passed 40 sections of the bill.
The bill will be sent to the house of representatives for concurrence before it is submitted to the president for assent.
The Informant247 – Naija News Today
