House of Representatives member, Akin Alabi, has called on the Federal Government to repeal the law banning the wearing of military camouflage by civilians in Nigeria.
Alabi made this call on Sunday in a statement on his X account, adding that Nigeria, Jamaica, Oman, St Lucia, Barbados, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia are some of the countries where it is illegal to wear a military camouflage.
The lawmaker representing Egbeda/Ona-Ara Federal Constituency of Oyo State said he was prompted to speak about the issue after receiving a lot of messages from young Nigerians complaining about being harassed by soldiers because they wore military camouflage.
“I totally condemn the harassment by soldiers on people wearing camouflage because the law does not empower them to discipline an offender,” he wrote.
“Yes, it is clearly stated in our laws that it is illegal to wear a camouflage or any clothings worn by the military.
“Section 110(1), Criminal Code states that it is illegal for non military person to wear the uniform of the armed forces, or any part of the uniform of such forces, or any dress having the appearance or bearing any of the regimental or other distinctive marks of such uniforms.”
Alabi, however, stated that there are two exceptions as an individual can wear it if he or she has the approval from a governor or the president.
He said the other option is if one wears it during an entertainment performance, like in a Nollywood movie or a music video but the penalty for this is one month imprisonment or a fine of N10.
According to him, there are other sections across Nigeria’s laws that back this up, so the lawmaker said he believes that the law is clear.
“Do not wear a camouflage. But does the law make sense? I’m sure some people will argue it does. Many will say it doesn’t. I’m one of those that say it doesn’t and I thought it would make a lot of sense to repeal that law,” Alabi said.
“Not only is it an archaic law, one major reason why I believe the law has to be repealed is because many soldiers ride on the law to abuse the rights of Nigerians.
“While I personally think the law should be repealed, I discovered that more Nigerians support the law. I conducted a few polls about the topic and more people want it to remain illegal.”
