The city of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, was on Tuesday thrown into pandemonium as men of the Mobile Police Unit of the Nigerian Police Force invaded the office of the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), chasing away corps members, journalists and civil society groups.
President Muhammad Buhari had recently refused accent to the Bill for an Act to establish Nigerian Peace Corps since after it was passed by the National Assembly.
However, the National Commandant of the Corps, Amb Dickson Akoh insisted that the Corps would continue to exist as a Non-Governmental Organisation which was duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.
The Corps celebrated its 20th anniversary by addressing newsmen in the old office located at Gwarimpa and thereafter, moved on a peaceful rally to the sealed office for another briefing.
While the briefing was still on, a detached operatives of Mobile Police men arrived the premises and started shooting sporadically, sending teargas into the midst of the crowd which comprises officers of Peace Corps, Civil Society Coalition and journalists.
The incident allegedly made several civil society activists and journalists to sustain injuries.
The Peace Corps office located at number 57, Iya Abubakar Crescent, off Alex Ekwueme street, opposite Jabi Lake Abuja, has been under lock and keys by the Police since February, 2017, the day the office was commissioned.
Justices Gabriel Kolawole and John Tsoho, both of the Federal High Court Abuja, had in separate ruling, ordered the Police to vacate the property which has not been obeyed.
The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami had also written to the Police Boss, IGP Idris Ibrahim, advising that the office be unsealed, “in absence of any appeal or valid stay of execution”.
The House of Representatives, based on the report by its committee on Public Petitions, had also given the Police 21-day ultimatum to vacate the property, but the office still remains closed.
Various Civil Society Organisations and the National Human Rights Commission have also, at different times intervened in the matter, but the Police appear not to be responding to their entreaties.
