The National Secretary, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Sen. Lawal Shuaibu, on Thursday called for the rehabilitation of cultists as a way to curb the menace in the country.
Shuaibu, who?said this?in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, was?reacting to the Secret Cult Societies and Similar Activities Prohibition Bill 2012 recently passed by Bayelsa State Government.
He said the bill was repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience and therefore null and void.
“There are so many issues involved with cultism; once you resolve to arrest you have deal with the psych.
“You have to work on people's reorientation the same way you subject drug addicts to rehabilitation and there are experts in that reorientation and rehabilitation to bring back the person to the normal way of thinking and socialising,’’ he said.
Shuaibu also added that renounced cultists could assist the state government to curb the menace of cultism.
Reacting to another bill signed by the state government which stated that career civil servants should be signatories to all cheques from local government, Shuaibu said the civil services were made up of regulations and not laws.
“You don’t legislate on who signs a cheque, it is not law but regulation. The regulation on who signs a cheque is contained in civil service regulation not in any law.
“Even if it is a law and you amend that law nobody will follow it, even the local government joint account as passed by National Assembly a few years ago which gave the governance direct access to local government funds, in the face of the law it is perfect but people abuse it,’’ he said.
Shuaibu said to improve the performance of local governments there should be a level of qualification and experience for council chairmen to be considered.
“The age should be considered also and when that is done, more should be given to local government and less money to state.
“Let there be grass roots development directly by the local government, they know what they need,’’ he said. (NAN)