The
Nigerian Senate's minority leader on Tuesday compared Peace Corps of
Nigeria to the notorious Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox scheme, which he
described as 419.
Godswill Akpabio
Speaking while contributing to a debate on the Peace Corps of
Nigeria bill at Tuesday's plenary, the former Governor of Akwa Ibom
state and minority leader of the senate, Godswill Akpabio, compared the
Corps to the Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox (MMM) scheme, which he described
as “419”.
According to TheCable, the outspoken politician said the upper legislative chamber could not afford to pass the bill given the issues surrounding the peace corps, and argued that if the senate passed the bill, it was “going to legitimise illegitimacy” and it would be like giving a legal backing to.
“Honestly speaking my submission will be to support the earlier
speakers, it is better for us to tread on the part of caution, when you
talk about para-military organisation, we may be adding to insecurity
in the nation vetting and other things have to be done before we start
putting uniform on people and giving ranks,” Akpabio told his colleagues.
“It is also almost like our government to make a law on MMM
where youth have been taken advantage of and people have lost money,
millions of naira and then someone brings a law to legitimise MMM which
we know is a fraud.
“Some of them are field marshals and they have not gone to any
war, many of them are lieutenant-generals, I have seen some saluting as
brigadier-generals, I have seen them in public occasions where the youth
use their clothes to clean the seats for the commandant-general.
“This thing is 419. We cannot make a law for an individual to collect millions of naira.”
The chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said if anyone
sought to help the youth he or she could do that through a foundation
that did not necessarily need the laws to back it.
“If an individual wants to empower youth, he can do that with
through a foundation. He does not need a law from the national
assembly,” he said.
“I would suggest that the appropriate thing to do is to step it
down. Controversies are too many. Remember when we started with the
civil defence, they were not meant to carry arms but many years later
they started carrying arms.”
While lamenting the rate of insecurity in the country, Akpabio said
it was unfortunate that people not fit to be in security agencies have
been recruited into the police force.
“If you know the number of armed robbers and criminals they
bring out of Police College in Ikeja after discovering that and they are
going there just to legitimise their trade by becoming policemen,” he said.
“Many of them have been sacked from training. So where we are
now is that when we bring another corps with uniform, we are going to
legitimise illegitimacy."