The Senate has mandated its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to investigate the controversies surrounding the activities and leadership of the National Peace Corps (NPC) after adopting a resolution to suspend consideration of the Conference Committee report on “A Bill to establish the Nigerian Peace Corps to empower, develop and provide gainful employment for the youths, to facilitate peace, volunteerism, community services, nation building and for other related matters“.

This came after the presentation of the report at the Senate plenary session of Tuesday, May 2nd 2017 by Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, Sen. Usman Bayero Nafada (APC: Gombe) who recommended its approval and passage. However, majority of lawmakers in the Senate took a differing view by objecting to the deliberation of the report.

The Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu (PDP:Enugu) in his submission for instance, noted that there had been a high number of court charges leveled against the leadership of the NPC. He also stated that the institution had been accused of fraudulently collecting large sums of monies from various individuals seeking employment within the institution and was of the view that further consideration of the report and subsequent passage of the Bill would not be in the interest of the nation. However, Sen. Binta Masi Garba(APC: Adamawa) in her submissions urged the Senate to take into consideration the challenges of unemployment in the country arguing that the Bill, if passed would create job opportunities for citizens.

It could be recalled that on March 16th 2017, the Senate had deferred consideration of the report following conflicting recommendations in the Conference Report which was produced after a harmonization meeting between the Senate and House of Representatives with the aim of agreeing on a common bill for passage.