The
House of Representatives on Friday restated its determination to pass a bill
to regulate non-governmental organisations, NGOs.
Several Nigerians including the former chairman
of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, have criticised the
bill describing it as unnecessary. Such critics say there are already enough
existing laws that only need to be implemented and that the bill was designed
to muscle NGOs and civil society organisations, CSOs.
The Deputy Majority Leader of the House, Umar
Jibril, has, however, defended the decision of the lawmakers to pass the new
NGO bill.
In a statement sent to Premium Times by an aide
to the Speaker of the House, Mr. Jibril alleged that “some NGOs collected funds
for North East IDPs and disappeared.”
He said religious organisations will not be
affected by the proposed bill. He also said “some NGOs are used to fund the
activities of terrorists and insurgents.”
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