Gladys Nweke
FORMER President of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) and human rights activist, Mr. Ledum Mitee has thrown his weight behind the newly created Rivers State Neighborhood Watch and Safety Agency, stressing that its implementation will help address security challenges in the state and provide more enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
He also called on Rivers people to give the Agency and the law establishing it a chance even as he urged the state government to educate citizens through massive enlightenment, on the objectives of the legislation for the people to fully embrace the security outfit.
Mitee, who spoke in an interview with theportcitynews.com said if operatives of the Agency have been empowered to carry arms, rather than call for a wholesale rejection of the outfit, the focus should be to amend provision of the law as according to him,” the state cannot legislate over issues of ammunition”.
It would be recalled that Governor Nysom Ezenwo Wike had recently given his assent to the Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Law No.8 of 2018 as part of fresh impetus to enhance security of lives and properties across the state.
He also gave his assent to the Rivers State Secret Cult and Similar Activities (Prohibition) (Amendment) Law No.6 of 2018 and the Rivers State Kidnap (Prohibition) (Amendment) No.2 Law No.7 of 2018 amidst protests by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC).
Indeed, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the APC governorship candidate in the 2015 election, while kicking against the law, said he would join others to challenge the controversial law claiming that the law which empowers the Agency’s personnel to bear arms, arrest and prosecute suspects is unconstitutional.
Similarly, some chieftains of the APC, who are operating under the aegis of Free Rivers Development Initiative (FRDI), have kicked against the decision of Governor Wike to give assent to the Rivers State Neigbourhood Safety Corps Bill 2018.
FRID President, Engr. Ngerebala Sampson, at a press conference in Abuja recently in company of Hon. Chidi Lloyd, Hon. Asita Honourable, and Prince Tonye Princewill, claimed that Neighbourhood Corps would be used by Wike to arrest and prosecute political opponents with a view to keeping them out of circulation before, during and after the 2019 general elections, an allegation which the governor had denied.
Sampson, who said that the bill was signed into law despite the pending suits before the Federal High Court against it, added that they raised alarm to its danger when it was at the bill stage before the Rivers State House of Assembly.
Therefore, he called on the Inspector General of Police and other security agencies to take steps and stop the River State Governor from inaugurating the Rivers State Safety Corps.
“Whereby our call is not heeded to, our reaction will be to also set up our own Neighbourhood Safety Corps to watch Wike’s Neighbourhood Safety Corps. We shall cloth them with uniforms and apply for arms for them through the police, then the two Neigbourhood Safety Corps will police each other. We cannot allow what happened before, during and after the 2015 general elections in Rivers State to repeat itself in 2019,” Sampson threatened.
Mr. Mitee, however, said that the Safety Corps and the enabling law should not be politicized.
He said:“Of course I believe in it. You see, in the face of all this controversy about the Neighborhood Watch and all that, I have to source for the Laws of Lagos as regards that. And I tried to compare it to see that they are similar”
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