The Lagos Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria (PCN), Mr Kuforiji Williams, on Sunday appealed to the nation’s legislators to expedite action on the passage of the PCN bill.
Williams, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said the passage, and its assent would put members of PCN in a better position to contribute effectively to ensure the safety of Nigerians.
He said the PCN, now a non-governmental organisation, would be able to do more if the bill becomes law.
Williams said that given the present situation of the country, there was the need to mobilise more men into the nation’s security architecture.
“There is insecurity, the manpower on the ground is not enough, so we need more hands,” he said.
Williams said the PCN had disciplined, well-trained and profiled officers who could contribute their quota in this regard.
“It will interest you to know that if the Nigerian Army or Nigeria Police want to recruit, they can take from us.
“We have officers that are well trained and have been profiled already.
“We can be like a reserve tank to all the security agencies. We have the ability and capacity. Our motto is Discipline and Patriotic Service.
“If you claim you are patriotic and you are not disciplined, that means you are not patriotic.
“It takes a man who is disciplined to know how to be patriotic and if you check out all our officers they are disciplined.” he said.
Williams said the focus of the organisation was more on neighbourhood watch and nation-building.
He said that PCN orientates and trains young people in secondary school and tertiary institutions.
“We believe in getting them young. If you look at the situation in the country today, you will see that there is corruption, insecurity and everything starts in the age bracket of 18 to 35.
“We have a club, we call it Peace Club and it’s in all secondary schools in the nation. We teach the students how to be law abiding and patriotic so that they won’t get into cultism in a tertiary institution.
“Fom there, they will graduate and become a plus with positive contributions to society.
“They can also join us before they get a job after school as they would have been orientated and we can easily incorporate them into our organisation, so, these are our areas of primary assignment and focus,” he said.
Williams said the Lagos command had 8,000 regular officers and 12,000 voluntary members.
He said that the command targets about 10,000 cadets in its membership drive.
Williams said PCN members were present in all local government areas of the state, working round the clock to complement the efforts of the police.
”We all know that the police cannot do all the work alone. So, we, on our own, have taken it upon ourselves to complement their effort and that’s what we’ve been doing, so, the initial cold reception is no longer there.” he said.
Williams said security is not one man’s business, appealing for quick passage of the PCN bill by the National Assembly, and Presidential assent, to enable it to do more.
He commended the Lagos State Government on the partnership the PCN had with some of its departments.
Williams said this was encouraging and helped in boosting the morale of PCN members.
