By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
Following the recent passage of the Nigeria Peace Corps Bill, the agency will now begin to operate under the Federal Ministry of Interior as soon as President Muhammadu Buhari assented to the Bill.
National Commandant, National Unity and Peace Corps (NUPEC), Dr. Chinedu Nneji, who disclosed this, however, said his organisation was already meeting with it sister agency, Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), ahead of the merger by the federal government.
Addressing a press conference in Abuja at the weekend, Nneji who also launched a campaign tagged: Love Your Neighbour As Yourself as part of efforts to discourage “every act of lawlessness and hate among Nigerians leading to disaffection, killings and destruction of property,” said NUPEC and PCN were awaiting the President’s assent to the Act recorgnising the organisations under a new name, Nigerian Peace Corps (NPC).
The NUPEC, boss who presented relevant documents to prove his points, put to rest the speculations that his organisation, NUPEC, was not captured in the Act by the House of Representatives.
He said: “What that conference meant was that the two organisations have finally been collapsed as one. Since we cannot appear before the public in two different names, it now behoves on the national assembly to give us a single name that each of us will now answer and that name is Nigerian Peace Corps.
“It is important to clarify that at no point was any of these two agencies removed from the list or rejected by the senate or the House of Representatives.
“What happened was that, in a bid to collapse the organisations, the organograms of the two agencies were examined and collapsed as one.”
While launching the campaign, Nneji said the killings in Karina, Plateau, Enugu, Benue, Zamfara, Taraba and Borno states, among others, could be tackled through the campaign.
“We have also agreed that the issue of Boko Haram and suicide bombers which has been at the front burner begging for mediation and conflict resolution could be systematically tackled through this process.
“It is also noteworthy that the economic sabotage in the Niger delta region, kidnappings and farmers, herdsmen clashes need an immediate end.”
