DSP Nnamdi Omoni

The Rivers State Police Command says it has begun the mopping up of  firearms used by the State Neighbourhood Watch Corps and other vigilante groups in the state.

In a statement released in Port Harcourt, the state capital on Thursday by the Force Public Relations Officer, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, the Command said the move followed a directive from the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris.

The statement said based on the IGP’s instructions, the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Zaki had constituted a special task force to recover all arms and ammunitions from all vigilante members in the state.

Omoni called on all members of the concerned vigilante groups in the state to willingly submit their arms to the Police within the next three weeks and warned that any one who failed to comply with the directive would be arrested and prosecuted accordingly.

“Any person or group of persons bearing prohibited firearm or any locally – fabricated firearm, pump action, double/single-barrelled guns or any modified weapon fashioned to kill or cause harm, panic or breach of the peace or threat to law and order in the state, should, as a matter of urgency, surrender same to the task force set up by the Commissioner of Police within the next 21 days, which started running from February 22,” Omoni’s statement read.

The statement added that the task force had been mandated to embark on raids, cordon – and – search operations, seizure from any premises, hideouts, completed or uncompleted buildings or any other location where illegal or prohibited firearms are kept.

Reacting to the development, the Rivers State House of Assembly said the IGP’s order was capable of hampering the efforts of the state towards improving the security architecture across the state.

The state’s legislature, which recently passed the Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Bill 2018 into law called on the Police to reconsider their stance in the interest of those resident in the state.

Chairman of the House Committee on Information and Communications, Hon. Sam Ogeh said the Police order was an attempt to preempt the efficacy of the law.

He stressed that if the executive arm of government thinks that the Neighbourhood Safety Corps Bill, which permits the vigilante groups to bear arms in the discharge of their duties was not needed, it should have approached a court of competent jurisdiction to declare it null and void or make the court declare that the law was not in the interest of the general public.