Police, DSS arrest Peace Corps Leader, 49 volunteers

…say terrorist elements have infiltrated Corps

A Joint operation by the Police, Army and the Department of State Services (DSS), has resulted in the arrest of the National Commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria, Mr. Dickson Akor, and 49 of his staff.
The operation was carried out at the corps’ Head office located opposite Jabi Lake, Abuja,
Presenting Akor and his men Wednesday at a joint press briefing in Abuja, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), CSP Jimoh Moshood, said the raid followed intelligence report that the Peace Corps and other “illegal security outfits have started acquiring weapons and conducting covert military training in different locations across the country.”
According to Moshood: “The Peace Corps of Nigeria under the leadership of one Akor Dickson was registered as an NGO but with brazen impunity, total disregard to the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, opened illegal training camps in some states of the country, where thousands of youths and other persons without proper background check and screening are receiving coverts military training.
“It is consequent upon the above and the veracity of intelligence reports from reliable sources, indicating that subversive elements/groups and terrorist affiliates have infiltrated the Peace Corps of Nigeria secretly to ruin and destroy the existing peace currently being enjoyed in the country…”
He added: “During the preliminary investigation into the activities of the Peace Corps of Nigeria, it was discovered that personnel of the Corps are extorting money from unwary youths throughout the country under the guise of recruitment; amounts ranging from fifty thousand naira to hundreds of thousands of naira are being paid by innocent Nigerians to the Peace Corps of Nigeria.”
The FPRO noted that the Corps was among some “illegal” security outfits the Federal Government had allowed in 2013.