Abia legalises arms for vigilance group

MEMBERS of the Abia State Vigilance Security outfit are now to bear “light arms” sequel to the amendment of the law establishing the group by the state House of Assembly.

However, what constitutes light arms would be determined for the group by the Police.

Deputy Speaker, Abia State House of Assembly and Chairman of its Information Committee, Allwell Okere, announced this on Wednesday evening during his monthly media briefing at the Assembly complex.

Okere said the amended law was one of three laws passed by the House within the last one month. He listed the other two as the state 2011 Appropriation Act, which increased the budget as presented by the Executive from N80.2 billion to N85.9 billion. The budget is made up of N45.5 billion and N40.4 billion recurrent and capital expenditures.

The third law, Okere said, is the State House of Assembly Service Commission Law, which empowers the House of Assembly to manage its workers by recruiting, promoting, disciplining, among others, as is the case at federal level.

Going by the results of the just-concluded House of Assembly election in the state, the Deputy Speaker observed that the in-coming House of Assembly would be all Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members made up of 15 re-elected lawmakers and nine fresh legislators.

According to Okeke, this would make for more cohesion and faster development of the state.