A federal lawmaker representing Iseyin/Itesiwaju/Kajola/Iwajowa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Shina Peller has proposed a bill to revoke the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps ( NSCDC) Amendment Act 2007, and transfer the assets and personnel of the corps to the Nigeria Police Force.
Peller’s proposed Nigeria Security And Civil Defence Corps ( Repeal and Transition) Bill 2022, which scaled through first reading on Tuesday, also seeks for an establishment of a transition management committee to superintend over the NSCDC, develop regulations and implement procedures for the transfer of its assets and personnel to the Nigeria Police Force.
In a statement issued by Kola Popoola, the Press Secretary to the lawmaker, Peller argued that fragmentation of security resources across multiple competing agencies is counterproductive.
He further stated that the mandate of the NSCDC has expanded in such a way that it has now become a duplication of the Nigeria Police Force.
The lawmaker also explained that the duplication has led to avoidable conflicts among the two security agencies.
In the proposed bill, the Iseyin-born federal lawmaker argued that every single function of the NSCDC can be done or is being done by the Nigeria Police Force, stressing that retaining it amounts to waste of scarce resources.
He revealed that the annual budget of NSCDC is almost one hundred billion naira.
However, the lawmaker explained that the development will not lead to loss of jobs as the assets and personnel of the NSCDC will be absorbed by the Nigeria Police Force.