The city of Abuja, the Federal
Capital Territory, was on Tuesday thrown into pandemonium as men of the Mobile
Police Unit of the Nigerian Police Force invaded the office of the Peace Corps
of Nigeria (PCN).
President Muhammad Buhari had
recently rejected the Bill for an Act to establish Nigerian Peace Corps by
declining to put assent to the Bill.
Despite that, the National
Commandant of the Corps, Amb (Dr.) Dickson Akoh said the Corps would continue
to exist as a Non-Governmental Organisation which was duly registered with the
Corporate Affairs Commission.
The Corps celebrated its 20th
anniversary on Tuesday by addressing newsmen in the old office located at
Gwarimpa and thereafter, members and journalists moved on a peaceful rally to
the sealed office for another briefing.
At the process of briefing journalists,
a detached operatives of Mobile Police men arrived the premises and started
shooting sporadically, sending teargas into the midst of the crowd which
comprises officers of Peace Corps, Civil Society Coalition and journalists.
Though no casualty has been
confirmed, several civil society activists and journalists were said to have
been injured in the process.
As at the time of filing this
report, the Policemen were seen chasing the youths along Jabi road while
shooting sporadically to the air with teargas, as commuters and passers-by run
for their lives.
The Peace Corps office located at
number 57, Iya Abubakar Crescent, off Alex Ekwueme street, opposite Jabi Lake
Abuja, has been under lock and keys by the Police since February 28th, 2017,
the day the office was commissioned.
Justices Gabriel Kolawole and
John Tsoho, both of the Federal High Court Abuja, had in separate ruling,
ordered the Police to vacate the property.
The Attorney-General of the
Federation, Abubakar Malami had also written to the Police Boss, IGP Idris
Ibrahim, advising that the office be unsealed, “in absence of any appeal or
valid stay of execution”.
The House of Representatives,
based on the report by its committee on Public Petitions, had also given the
Police 21-day ultimatum to vacate the property, but the office still remains
closed.
Various Civil Society
Organisations and the National Human Rights Commission have also, at different
times intervened in the matter, but the Police appear not to be responding to
their entreaties.
God help Nigeria and Nigerians
ReplyDeleteUnlawful police. What an irony, people employed to enforce the law cannot even obey the law. What a shame.
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