Vigilante Group hails National Assembly for passage of bill

The Commander General of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), Navy Captain Umar Bakori (Rtd), has commended the National Assembly for the speedy passage of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria Bill and appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to it.

The Senate in Committee of the Whole had at plenary on Tuesday, considered the VGN (Establishment) Bill 2022 (HB 437) and approved clauses one to 30 as recommended, interpretation as recommended, Schedule as recommended, Short and Long Titles as recommended, including the Explanatory Memorandum as recommended.

The bill, which is sponsored by Senate Leader, Ibrahim Gobir was read for the third time and passed. It seeks to establish the Vigilante Group of Nigeria with the powers to provide community policing, maintenance of law and order, as well as community service for Nigerians. The House of Representatives first passed it into law in November 2021.

The committee of the Whole had considered and adopted 29 out of the 30 clauses in the Bill’s report presented by Kabiru Idris.

The ad-hoc committee had deliberated on this and agreed that all aspects of financial obligations from the Federal Government should be removed and that the group should stand on its own, generate contributions from Federal, State and Local Government.

Bakori assured the Federal Government and the National Assembly that his officers and men numbering about One million, Five Hundred Thousand and embedded in all communities, local governments and states in Nigeria have been well trained by the Police, DSS and NSCDC to complement national security efforts at all levels.

The Commander General noted that with the passage of the long awaited Bill by the NASS, President Buhari’s promise to Nigerians that he would bequeath a safe and secure country before he leaves power is now realisable.

“Once the President who is the Commander-in-Chief assents to the Bill and it becomes law, we are ready to deploy our men all over the country in accordance with our mandate to ensure insecurity becomes a thing of the past” Bakori assured.