…Sergeant at arms to carry arms
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed for third reading a bill seeking to professionalise the internal security structure of the National Assembly by upgrading the office of the Sergeant-at-Arms and placing its leadership within the parliamentary service system.
The bill was sponsored by the spokesperson to the House and Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Hon. Akin Rotimi (APC, Ekiti).
Under the bill, which was passed at the plenary, only officers who have served in the National Assembly for at least 15 years, attained a minimum rank of Assistant Director, and have no record of indiscipline or incompetence will be eligible for appointment as Sergeant-at-Arms.
It also provides that the head of the National Assembly Security Directorate, known as the Sergeant-at-Arms, will henceforth be appointed by the National Assembly Service Commission from among serving personnel of the legislature rather than from retired military or external security officers, as has often been the case.
The bill, when assented to, will elevate the office of the Sergeant-at-Arms into a full directorate within the National Assembly bureaucracy.
This implies that the directorate will now enjoy full institutional privileges comparable to other directorates, while its head will serve a renewable tenure of four years, subject to a maximum of two terms.
“The same conditions of service with other staff members of the National Assembly, and in situations where the conditions of service are silent, they are to enjoy the same conditions applicable to the Nigeria Police”, the bill provides.
Similarly, the bill “Allows the Sergeant-at-Arms to carry arms and ammunition within the National Assembly complex and its precincts, subject to the approval of the President, but such firearms shall not be used within the Assembly Complex except in self-defence or defence against imminent threat of death or serious injury.”
It also authorises the use of arms under strictly defined circumstances, including preventing serious crimes that pose grave threats to life, arresting dangerous individuals who resist lawful authority, or preventing their escape when no lesser means are sufficient.
