The Inter-ethnic Network for Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, INCRA,
a leading media group in Rivers State, has threatens to resort to self-defense by mobilising a counter group "Neighborhood Defenders" if the queer Neighborhood Watch Corps is not proscribed immediately and the Law enabling it repealed.
The law enabling the setting up of the Neighborhood Watch Corps is not only defective but inconsistent with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria- the supreme document of the land and is to the extent of its inconsistency null and void. It is therefore, illegal for the Neighborhood Watch Corps to bear arms or continue to exist.
The Nigerian Fire Arms Act (1990) provides that no person shall have in his possession or under his control any firearm or ammunition except such person has a license from the President or from the Inspector General of Police. Evidently, the Neighbourhood Watch is illegal and cannot Stand. The public may wish to know that the Rivers State House of Assembly acted ultra vires in the Neighborhood Watch Corps bill and this jurisdictional error renders the bill a nullity.
We are not unaware of the machinations and political artifices of Governor Wike and his PDP. We have sufficient reasons to believe that the Neighborhood Watch is not a legal but a political creation with a predetermined end to gag, intimidate, maim and kill those who dare to have dissenting views and political interest from the PDP. Never again shall we idly watch criminal elements kill innocent citizens for belonging to a political party opposed to their paymaster. We are afraid that the Neighborhood Watch cannot guarantee our security or solve the security problems of the State.
Presently, submission and Collation of names of PDP members and thugs friendly to the PDP for enlistment into the Corps is ongoing across the 23 LGAs of the State in a most clandestine manner indicative of the fact that only PDP members are drafted into the Corps. Our intelligence reveals that the Neighborhood Watch Corps have opened training camps for notorious cult members to be enlisted into the Corps.
We call on the Inspector- General of Police and all relevant authorities to avert a possible anarchy and breakdown of law and order by disbanding the Neighbourhood Watch Corps outrightly. As a law-abiding group, we would not want to take laws into our hands, however, we are not loosing sight of the fact that the first principle of nature is self-preservation and we will not hesitate to protect ourselves from Governor Wike's militias. If the neighbourhood watchers are allowed to bear arms, we shall mobilize other Rivers neighbours to bear arms too. Illegality begets illegality. We shall have Neighbourhood Watchers Vs Neighbourhood Defenders.
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