Tina Amanda
A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt has ruled that the Director-General Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corps, Dr Uche Chukwuma, can proceed to recommence the recruitment and training exercise of eligible persons into the Corps.
Recall that the Plaintiff, Neighborhood Safety Corps had filed a lawsuit on the 5th December, 2018, against the General Officer Commanding of the 6 division of Nigerian Army, Maj Gen Jamil Sarham, for unlawful interference and disruption of the Neighborhood Corps recruitment exercise on the 29th November, 2018, at the NYSC camp Norwa, in Tai local government.
The Plaintiff sought the leave of court whether the actions of the Nigerian Army was right and constitutional and also prayed the court to award the sum of ten billion (10,000,000,000) naira to them for damages.
In his judgement, Justice Henry Oshomah ruled that it was wrong for the Nigerian Army to have interfered and disrupted the screening exercise of members of the Corps, as Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corp law No. 8 2018, is constitutional and valid.
Justice Oshomah dismissed the section 2A of the law that empowers Neighbourhood Corp to carry arms, stating that only security agencies are empowered to carry arms by federal law, and declined to award any compensation to the Plaintiff.
Speaking to our reporter Tina Amanda, Zacchaeus Adangor, Counsel to the Plaintiff said they are happy with the judgement, as it has clearly shown that no authority empowered the Nigerian Army to carry out such actions.
Counsel to the Nigerian Army Selinah Amoniefah declined to speak on the judgement.
