07042018 - Investigate your ministers
Vanguard Newspaper 07 April 2018
Vanguard Newspaper 07 April 2018
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
18—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 7, 2018<br />
Continues from pg 17<br />
who should arrest the situation delight in<br />
blame game, fueled by mutual suspicion.<br />
Among the usual suspects who come under<br />
knocks for the prevailing security situation<br />
has been the security operatives. As the sudden<br />
marriage of operations among the Police, DSS<br />
and military operatives produced the<br />
succession of elimination of kingpins of the<br />
Waney terror empire, stakeholders have<br />
cheered in suspicion.<br />
Some wonder if the security operatives<br />
suddenly acquired new policing techniques<br />
or the recent successes happened by strokes of<br />
luck. Others concluded that the prolong failure<br />
to avert the many lives Waney wasted before<br />
being shot dead was willful failure fueled by<br />
compromise or cheer negligence by security<br />
operatives. Yet others wonder why the Police,<br />
DSS and Military were yet to exercise same<br />
tactfulness in eliminating Waney to take out<br />
those terrorizing other localities.<br />
Danjuma stokes Wike’s suspicion<br />
As Chief Security Officer in his state,<br />
Governor Nyesom Wike too has not hidden<br />
his suspicion and vote of no confidence in<br />
statutory security operatives in his domain. In<br />
the heat of the Omoku crisis, the governor<br />
shared his worries with visiting Interior<br />
Minister, Lt Gen Abdulrahman Danbazzau.<br />
The governor told the visitor; “The security<br />
agencies have profiles of all cult kingpins in<br />
different parts of the state and they know their<br />
locations. There is no wisdom in the<br />
politicisation of security. You can never know<br />
the next victim of insecurity “.<br />
“In every system, the security agencies know<br />
the flash-points. Here we requested for the<br />
strengthening of security around these<br />
flashpoints, especially areas with high<br />
prevalence of cultists. I expected that security<br />
would be beefed up in these places.<br />
“I ask this question. Is there an orchestrated<br />
plan to tag Rivers State as unsafe? Is the<br />
situation above the security agencies despite<br />
the information we have made available to<br />
them?”<br />
The governor’s disenchantment with<br />
security operatives in the state was deepened<br />
by recent critical declaration by Gen.<br />
Theophilus Danjuma, charging Nigerians not<br />
to rely on the armed forces any more and begin<br />
to defend themselves against growing<br />
terrorism.<br />
Swearing in four new judges at the<br />
Government House Port Harcourt, Wike<br />
again harped on security in Rivers being<br />
deliberately compromised by security<br />
agencies who, he alleged, work with All<br />
Progressives Congress, APC, to undermine<br />
security of lives and property.<br />
He said, “I wasn’t used to fasting, but I will<br />
fast for God to keep Gen<br />
Danjuma. The General has<br />
said the obvious truth. It is<br />
happening daily in Rivers<br />
State. We are setting up our<br />
Neighbourhood Safety Corps,<br />
but they are generating crisis.<br />
We only replicated what is in<br />
existence in Lagos State, but<br />
nobody queries that of Lagos<br />
State. Only recently,<br />
Nasarawa State launched her<br />
outfit, without being<br />
challenged”<br />
Harcourt, the traditional ruler<br />
in currently troubled Egbalor,<br />
rather blamed governments, at<br />
all tiers in Rivers state, for not<br />
being proactive in nailing Mba<br />
Joe and his gang, saying that<br />
these stakeholders, beyond<br />
declaring the suspect wanted,<br />
have not made meaningful<br />
efforts at nailing him.<br />
Abe cautions<br />
For Sen. Magnus Abe, the<br />
security situation in Rivers is too<br />
deep-rooted that only serious<br />
efforts can save the situation.<br />
“Don Waney has always been<br />
there. Everybody knew the<br />
danger he constituted, but some<br />
persons chose to protect and<br />
encourage him. When we all<br />
agreed to see it as bad, they<br />
caught him. If you create<br />
leadership without authority,<br />
you destroy society” he said.<br />
At Andoni where he recently<br />
Kidnappers adopt<br />
new approach<br />
reached out with relief materials to residents<br />
internally displaced by cult violence, the<br />
Senator representing Rivers South East told<br />
the people, “The gunmen terrorizing the<br />
people are no strangers. They are <strong>your</strong><br />
children, our own children, known to you<br />
people.<br />
“If we want to help the youth, we must<br />
educate them to establish them in leadership.<br />
When you undermine merit to glorify a small<br />
boy because of how well he can shoot a gun or<br />
kill, people around him will lose hope in<br />
leadership”, he further cautioned.<br />
Wike recipe for improvement stirs fresh<br />
controversy<br />
On top of the perceived compromises and<br />
stakeholders’ failures in<br />
arresting the situation is<br />
the reality that there are<br />
not enough policemen to<br />
police the state or<br />
anywhere else in the<br />
nation.<br />
The<br />
overwhelming<br />
deployment of the<br />
Swearing in four<br />
new judges at the<br />
Government<br />
House Port<br />
Harcourt, Wike<br />
again harped on<br />
security in Rivers<br />
being deliberately<br />
compromised by<br />
security agencies<br />
who, he alleged,<br />
work with All<br />
Progressives<br />
Congress, APC, to<br />
undermine<br />
security of lives<br />
and property<br />
•Rivers CP Zaki Ahmed<br />
already inadequate<br />
police force to do private<br />
guards for politicians,<br />
influential individuals<br />
and corporate bodies has<br />
aggravated that<br />
inadequacy.<br />
Under the<br />
circumstance, Governor<br />
Wike had also taken<br />
some of the harshest of<br />
the knocks against<br />
perceived failure of his<br />
administration to rise to<br />
the occasion with every<br />
action or inaction.<br />
Coming out with a new<br />
Rivers State<br />
Neighbourhood Safety<br />
Corps Law No.8 of 2018<br />
under this dilemma, the<br />
dissenting voices had<br />
been predictably<br />
resonant.<br />
At the March 15 assent<br />
to the bill passed by the<br />
Rivers State House of<br />
Assembly, Wike also<br />
signed Rivers State<br />
Secret Cult and Similar<br />
Activities (Prohibition)<br />
•Gov Wike<br />
(Amendment) Law No.6 of 2018 and the<br />
Rivers State Kidnap (Prohibition)<br />
(Amendment) No.2 Law No.7 of 2018. The<br />
governor followed a day later with<br />
appointment of Dr Uche Chukwuma, retired<br />
Assistant Commissioner of Police who holds<br />
a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Degree as Acting<br />
Director-General of the expected<br />
Neighborhood Watch Corps.<br />
Not many are opposed to the desirability of<br />
alternative security apparatus to arrest the<br />
insecurity in Rivers, but again, mutual<br />
suspicion came to the fore as the usual suspect,<br />
opposition River APC, led the rage of rejection<br />
to the new law. APC fears reside with reasoned<br />
propensity to abuse the part of the<br />
Neighborhood Watch law which provides for<br />
a state organized vigilante, licensed to bear<br />
arms, enter, search and arrest suspected<br />
criminals without warrant, working in concert<br />
with statutory security operatives.<br />
Rivers APC, in a statement signed by its<br />
chairman, Chief Davies Ikanya, envisaged the<br />
intended Neighborhood Watch Corps as<br />
“Wike private army in disguise” and a call to<br />
violence in coming elections in the state. The<br />
party fears the security team is going to be<br />
deployed for political witch hunt.<br />
Ikanya’s statement, signed by Chief Eze<br />
Chukwuemeka Eze, his media consultant,<br />
noted that, “Considering the bloodletting that<br />
accompanied the 2015 general elections<br />
without this type of legally approved militia<br />
group, only God knows what we befall the<br />
state. This sinister bill that authorises the<br />
Neighbourhood Watch to carry arms, enter,<br />
search and arrest citizens without warrant is<br />
mischievous, diabolical, evil and<br />
unacceptable”<br />
The governor has maintained that the new<br />
law adopts what is already existent in Lagos<br />
and other states in best interest of the people,<br />
adding that the worry by APC was in display<br />
of usually posture not to see anything good<br />
under his administration.<br />
The Neighbourhood Watch Safety Corps,<br />
he emphasised, cannot work without approval<br />
of security agencies who will profile all the<br />
operatives, adding that the body will support<br />
existing security agencies with intelligence and<br />
information to effectively fight crime and<br />
make the state safer.<br />
“If <strong>your</strong> hands are clean, you have nothing<br />
to fear about the laws. All criminals will face<br />
full weight of the law. We will ensure the state<br />
is safe for investors. If you are a cultist and you<br />
are caught, it is life imprisonment. If you<br />
are a cultist and you kill during<br />
cult activities, you will face the death<br />
penalty. If you are convicted of<br />
kidnapping and the Supreme Court<br />
affirms <strong>your</strong> conviction, I will sign<br />
the death warrant without looking<br />
back “, he declared.<br />
Civil society divided too<br />
Eugene Ode, Chairman,<br />
Progressive Lawyers Forum, said,<br />
“We vehemently express our<br />
displeasure over the purported<br />
Neighborhood Watch Corps. The<br />
law constitutes an abuse of the<br />
Constitution of the Federal<br />
Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as<br />
amended).<br />
“Section 227 of the Constitution<br />
prohibits the establishment of any<br />
militia group or security outfits<br />
by the state other than those<br />
established by the Constitution.<br />
This law is capable of setting the<br />
constitutionally recognized<br />
security organizations in collision<br />
with the Neighborhood Corps of<br />
the state. This course will amount<br />
to proliferation of fire arms with<br />
it’s attendant consequences.<br />
“While we explore judicial<br />
process to set aside the law, we<br />
call on both the National<br />
Assembly and National Security<br />
Adviser to pay particular attention<br />
to what is unfolding in Rivers State<br />
the same way they are dealing<br />
with the Kogi State issue”, Ode<br />
said.<br />
Sotonye George, Chairman,<br />
Rivers state chapter of the Civil<br />
Liberties Organisation, CLO,<br />
said, “CLO has never gone against<br />
it. What we recommend is light<br />
arms, if the constitution permits<br />
it. They should work under police<br />
watch. The arms they will bear<br />
must be licensed by the police.<br />
They cannot forcefully carry arms. There are<br />
procedures to follow. So the police<br />
commissioner must formally issue those<br />
licenses.<br />
“Police population is not enough to police<br />
our society. We need complementary<br />
organization, and that is why we called for<br />
the neighborhood watch. The governor has<br />
assented to the bill, now it is a law. We advice<br />
everybody in Rivers to accept it. The law is<br />
obviously good for the people. It is protective<br />
and we should all support. Let them not bring<br />
politics into it. Not everybody belongs to a<br />
party. Security matters are above politics.”<br />
Rights and Justice Advocate, Annkio Briggs,<br />
said, “I believe Wike and his government will<br />
not use Neighbourhood Watch Corps to arm<br />
youths because he knows that will be against<br />
the law. The Governor is working for the<br />
people of Rivers and Neighbourhood Watch<br />
Corps will work with the nation’s crime<br />
preventers because the Corps must work with<br />
the police.<br />
“I will suggest to the opposition to the<br />
present Rivers state Government and civil<br />
society to keep an eye out and make sure the<br />
state government led by Wike does not step<br />
outside of the legitimate functions of this corps.<br />
It is in the better interest of the people and<br />
state and not to assume the worst because of<br />
politics”<br />
Police neither here or there<br />
At a recent gathering of police chiefs<br />
following Wike’s signing of the controversial<br />
law, Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris,<br />
had expressed dismay at hearing from the<br />
Rivers Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Zaki,<br />
that he wasn’t carried along and his input not<br />
sought throughout the debate and signing of<br />
the law.<br />
A law requiring a civilian group to bear arms,<br />
the IGP had stressed, must gain the approval<br />
of the police who have the responsibility to<br />
regulate the licensing of guns. Idris<br />
consequently charged Zaki to write Governor<br />
Wike on the police position on the matter.<br />
The Police in Rivers, at a briefing at her<br />
Command Headquarters in Port Harcourt,<br />
confirmed the IGP directive, but consciously<br />
declined comments on how well it has been<br />
carried out.<br />
“Let’s leave that subject for now. You know<br />
there is a directive from the IGP and the CP is<br />
working on doing the needful”, Nnamdi<br />
Omoni, Rivers Police Public Relations Officer,<br />
offered economically on the matter.