EXCLUSIVE: How Nigerian senators took bribes to pass Peace Corps Bill

To pass the Nigerian Peace
Corps Bill, senators
received kickbacks in form
of job slots and cash
reward from the
promoters of the proposed
paramilitary organisation,
PREMIUM TIMES can
report.
Scores of senators
received at least seven
employment slots each to
back the bill, which was
passed to, amongst other
things, create the Nigerian
Peace Corps as the
country’s newest law
enforcement agency.
Some of the lawmakers
considered key to the
passage of the law got as
much as 500 slots, our
findings show.
Other senators received
cash rewards for their
acquiescence, multiple
senators, including those
who benefited, told
PREMIUM TIMES.
The bribery scheme
became so brazen that
some senators who were
members of the
committees that worked
on the bill pointedly
accused each other of
being bought by the Peace
Corps.
But the leadership of the
Senate quickly weighed in,
made peace amongst the
feuding senators and
hushed up the case,
consequently saving the
upper chamber from
another major
embarrassment, our
sources said.
But the Peace Corps
denied offering bribes to
lawmakers to secure the
major milestone in its
decade-long quest to
become a government
agency.
“At no point did our
organisation offered any
bribes to lawmakers,”
Milicent Umoru, the
group’s spokesperson, told
PREMIUM TIMES
Thursday. “The bill
actually suffered a whole
lot before it was finally
adopted a few days ago.”
Both chambers of the National
Assembly passed the bill “because
they see it as necessary to curb acute
unemployment amongst Nigerian
youth,” she added. It remains unclear
Saturday whether members of the
House of Representatives also took
bribes to pass the bill.
The Senate approved the harmonised
version of the controversial bill on
Tuesday, despite deep scepticism
from its own Committee on Judiciary,
Human Rights and Legal Matters that
the bill offers virtually no unique
service to the public.
David Umaru, the committee
chairman who was mandated by the
Senate to look into the significance of
the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill,
delivered a scathing review of the
paramilitary group when he laid the
findings of his committee before the
Senate Tuesday.
“The powers, functions, e.t.c., of the
Peace Corps call for concern and this
committee would wish that they are
subjected to further examination,”
Mr. Umaru, APC-Niger East, said.
The senator said the attempts by
promoters of the Peace Corps to make
government absorb it was strange
and starkly different from the
approach of its sister organisation in
the United States.
“The American Peace Corps, which is
used as a model, does not operate as a
permanent and pensionable
employment as intended in Nigeria
under this proposed legislation,” Mr.
Umaru said. “Rather, its employment
is for a limited period of five years
only for regular employees and 24
months for volunteers.”
Yet, Mr. Umaru went on to
recommend that the Senate should
proceed with passing the harmonised
version of the Peace Corps Bill,
clearing the way for its onward
transfer to the president’s desk for
assent.
Dickson Akoh, Peace Corps’ national
commandant, said his organisations
would offer what the American Peace
Corps offers and even more.
The Peace Corps will achieve capacity
building for youth creativity and
intervention; capacity building for
youth development and
empowerment in agriculture; and
peace education and conflict
resolution, Mr. Akoh said.
But a majority of existing government
agencies expressed strong opposition
to the creation of the organisation.
At a House committee hearing during
consideration of the bill, the Office of
the Head of Service (HoS) said several
government agencies with similar
mandates as Peace Corps already
exist and listed the Ministry of Youth
Development and Ministry of
Employment, Labour and Productivity
and Ministry of Environment as
examples.
Other existing law enforcement
agencies include: Ministry of
Education, Institute for Peace and
Conflict Resolution, National
Orientation Agency, National Poverty
Eradication Programme and, National
Directorate of Employment. The list is
far from being exhausted, the head of
service said.
Consequently, the HoS urged
lawmakers to consider “the
implications of the proposed creation
of Nigerian Peace Corps on the cost of
governance and duplication of duties
of existing agencies.”
Law enforcement agencies have taken
measures against the Peace Corps
since at least 2003 when the State
Security Service arrested Mr. Akoh
and shut down his offices across the
country.
He resumed operation in 2007. But
when the SSS clamped down on his
organisation again, he launched a civil
lawsuit which has dragged since then.
This year alone, the police have
detained Mr. Akoh at least twice.
At the first incident, armed officers
from police, SSS and the Nigerian
Army stormed the head office of the
Peace Corps and took Mr. Akoh and
more than 40 others into custody.
The head office was also shut by the
police, and has not been reopened
ever since.
Mr. Akoh said he had won at least 11
cases against different security
agencies over the past 15 years. The
police will neither confirm nor deny
this assertion.
While several agencies under
executive control have openly
expressed opposition to the Peace
Corps, President Muhammadu Buhari
and Acting President Yemi Osinbajo
have not said whether they will
assent to the bill or reject it.
Enquiries directed to presidential
spokespersons, including Garba
Shehu, Laolu Akande and Femi
Adesina, went unanswered
throughout Thursday.
Senate sources with knowledge about
the tactics of the Peace Corps told
PREMIUM TIMES the group’s
promoters gave millions of naira to
some senators.
“Apart from the cash bribes that they
offered, they even gave some key
lawmakers who worked to ensure that
the bill was passed more than 1000
job slots,” a senator said.
But PREMIUM TIMES could not
confirm if Mr. Umaru received cash
bribes from the Peace Corps.
Promoters of the Peace Corps also put
pressure on some lawmakers through
their constituents.
“They asked our constituents to
inundate us with calls about jobs
prospects in the Peace Corps,” the
senator said.
Senate spokesperson, Abdullahi Aliyu,
did not respond to PREMIUM TIMES
request for comments on the
allegations.
But Enyinnaya Abaribe, PDP-Abia
South, denied receiving any bribes
from the Peace Corps.
The “allegation is beneath contempt,”
he said.
“None at all,” he said while
responding to specific question on
whether he received cash bribes.
Mr. Akoh was said to raised funds
from the sale of forms to unemployed
youth seeking job placement in his
organisation. He has been selling
employment forms to prospective
recruits at N1,500 per copy.
But he told PREMIUM TIMES in
January that the N40,000 he collects
from prospective members was
meant for registration, training,
procurement of kits, amongst others.
“The ICPC has investigated us in 2004
and established that we’re not
extorting money from the youth,” he
added.
Other than the possible employment
opportunities that an established
Peace Corps could bring to Nigerian
youth, there appears to be no other
unique reason for its creation.
But even “this can be achieved by
strengthening existing agencies and
not necessarily creating a new one so
as not to overburden the federal
government,” Mr. Umaru said.
Yet, the senator declined requests
from PREMIUM TIMES seeking to
know why he urged his colleagues to
allow the Peace Corps Bill scale
through in disregard of the findings
of his committee.