The insecurity in Rivers State has reached a fever-pitch high. People now live in fear. Every night and day, horrible news emanate from different quarters of the state: Death, Murder, Kill.
But is there a way that the residents of the state can help themselves? Yes! The Wike-led administration should restart the Neighbourhood watch program.
On November 29th 2018, personnel of the Nigerian Army invaded the training ground of the Rivers neighbourhood watch in Nonwa, Tai Local Government Area.
The soldiers who chased away the trainees also arrested the coordinator of the agency and the instructors and cordoned off the area.
One of the trainees said “We were about settling down when they(the soldiers) came and ordered everyone out of the centre.
“They began whipping people and everyone ran for safety. Some of us sustained injuries due to the little stampede that ensured and they asked to return home because what we are doing is illegal”
Rivers State Government had on November 20 announced that it has recruited 3,000 personnel into the state security outfit. The 3,000 personnel, according to the state government, would gather information from communities across the 23 local government areas of the state and pass same to security agencies for relevant action.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Neighbourhood Safety Corps Agency, Brig.-Gen. Dick Ironabare (rtd), said that Rivers people should expect the best from the agency, which would fill the security gap in the state.
He said, “The security gap in the state is the lack of appropriate information to fight crime.
“So, this agency will gather information and intelligence in various communities and pass over to security agencies to act upon.
“Rivers people will benefit in terms of security. We are doing a proper screening.
“After the screening, they will go in for training and, thereafter, they will be deployed to the communities”.
There was strong opposition to the decision of the Wike-led administration to set up the security outfit. This was mainly coming from the All Progressives Congress chieftains who accused Wike of equipping a private army.
The bill was transmitted to the state house of assembly which passed it and was assented by Wike in June 2018.
The opposition continued. Those who queried the rationale behind the Neighbourhood Watch had several concerns like who would vet the cadets to be recruited for the security outfit, how are they to be organised, will they bear arms? Some of the concerns were genuine considering the polarising nature of politics in the state and heated atmosphere occasioned by the drafting of Tonye Cole by the minister of Transportation to run for office.
This necessitated the Rivers State Chapter of the All Progressive Congress to say that the security outfit is only for election rigging purposes, especially giving the fact that they will be armed, calling it a private army by the state governor aimed at intimidating members of the APC during the 2019 general elections.
However, governor Wike denied such claims, saying that Lagos and Kaduna states which are APC states already have similar outfits.
Three months before, a wanted cultist in Etche scaled the first screening for the police recruitment exercise. The police that declared him wanted could not even identify him until one of the guys from Etche who came for the same recruitment exercise reported him and he was arrested.
Wike had argued that the police seemed to be overwhelmed by the security challenges in the state and to legitimize the outfit, the government sought the consent of the police, DSS and the army to help in training the cadets.
The army disrupted the training, arrested the director of the security outfit and bade the cadets goodbye.
A week later, Wike declared that he was going to train the cadets inside Bricks house but everyone knew that he was being subdued, especially with the redeployment of Maj General Jamil Sarham as GOC 6 Division in the same month.
On 6th February 2019, after a bus belonging to Agofure Motors was attacked with the driver shot dead and all the passengers in the bus except an older woman being kidnapped, the Rivers State Police Command declared a state of emergency on the Emohua axis of the East-West Road. Before that, the had been series of killings and kidnapping along the road. One week later, the police abandoned the state of emergency it so declared.
When the situation along the road became unbearable, police returned to sing the same song again, declaring a state of emergency on the road for the second time in a space of two months.
From Thursday to Sunday, more than 30 persons have been killed by unknown gunmen in the state. One is forced to ask what the police with constitutional responsibility to fight crime is doing?
Gunmen invaded a rig at Ogbele on Friday and abducted 3 oil workers; one Canadian; one Scot and a Nigerian. A day before, two staff of Shell Petroleum Development Company, SPDC, were abducted along Rumuji. Two police officers and one civilian driver were also killed.
A girl was shot dead at Aluu on Saturday. 3 persons were killed at Eneka on Saturday night while at Edeoha, Ahoada-East, 2 persons were gunned down on Sunday night. At Iriebe, a clash between Hausa community and Akwa Ibom residents of the area led to a clash that led over 15 deaths including 3 police officers.
The Rivers State Police commissioner, Usman Belel, during his maiden press briefing on the 4th of January 2019 said he came to the state to fight crime and criminality but under his watch, police officers are busy extorting commercial drivers along major roads in Port Harcourt while criminals run rampage in communities and villages.
Isn’t the Neighbourhood Watch the best bet?
