HOUSE MAKES CASE FOR THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE, CALLS FOR RENOVATION OF BARRACKS
The House of Representatives has stressed the need to renovate the police barracks across the country, on this note,a resolution was passed urging the Ministry of Police Affairs and the Inspector General of Police to design a strategy to attract reputable investors to begin the renovation, reconstruction and maintenance of barracks.
The House Committee on Police Affairs has also been mandated to monitor compliance with this resolution and bring back a quarterly report on the matter. The concern to build barracks that will provide cheaper, safer and reasonable accommodation and ensure discipline and good mental disposition was expressed in a motion moved by Hon. Hassan Salleh on Wednesday, November 11, 2015.
He exposed the neglect of police barracks which were built many years ago but are now dilapidated with stinking gutters, broken sewage, damaged roofs to mention a few. In addition, the poor housing and welfare conditions experienced by members of the force have impacted negatively on their attitude to work. He urged his colleagues to throw their support behind the motion to allow for urgent action to be taken on the matter.
In another instance, the House has prevailed upon the telecommunications service providers to either develop or acquire software that will block or filter-out certain images or contents that violate both moral and religious values in Nigeria. Passing a resolution on a motion moved by Hon. Johnbull Shekarau calling for the censoring of social media, he prayed the House to urge the telecoms service providers to initiate a take-down procedure that will enable a swift removal of any pornographic materials when notified by network users. He advised that this could be done by dedicating a hotline that will receive and treat complaints.
The resolution passed on the motion by the House include:
• The Nigerian Communication Commission to create significant barriers to the misuse of mobile networks and services, phones and other devices used for the perpetration of such immoral contents.
The House, however subscribed to the opinion of the mover of the motion that not censoring inappropriate and illicit material like pornography, sexual and homosexual ones on platforms such as YouTube, Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter etc is a threat to the moral values and decency of the Nigerian society.
Meanwhile, the House has adjourned plenary till Tuesday 17, November.