A security expert and Man O’War Nigeria deputy National Commander, Operations, Intelligence, Monitoring and Rescue, Rev. Amb. Kriss Natty Rissi, has joined other well-meaning citizens to hail the dissolution of the Rivers State Taskforce on illegal street trading and motor parks.
Speaking with newsmen over the weekend in Port Harcourt, he described the action of the State Governor as a welcome development going by the activities of the group in recent times.
According to him, “instead of the taskforce members to ensure the decongestion of traffic on the road which was the good intention of the RSG, they were rather constituting nuisance by chasing defaulting drivers to cause accident because their minds was made up on the fixed amount of money accruing to their pockets on daily basis,” he said.
Commander Rissi also recalled that the taskforce members were intimidating, harassing, maiming and killing the citizens at every slight provocation because of the presence of armed policemen in their midst which boast their ego.
“The task force members were equally accused of ambushing and carting away poor traders goods for their personal use and also there were cases where they were publicly engaged in street fight if the victims prove stubborn”.
He said the intention of government was to correct the people to consciously realize the importance of doing things rightly for peaceful co-existence.
While blaming the situation on the poor recruitment processes and perhaps poor orientation, commander Rissi advocated for a new improved task force with human face, whose members will be thoroughly scrutinized before engagement.
“Patriotic citizens from a regimented group who would report to laid down structure for proper coordination and discipline would be a better option,” he said.
He therefore suggested that Man O’War Nigeria, Peace Corps of Nigeria or Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) with relevant experience and competence should be considered to take over the task force duties since there is need for continues supervision and direction of the populace to drive home the government intention of a well-coordinated market places, motor parks and free traffic flow on the roads.
On the rising insecurity in the country, the Man O’War Commander blamed it on the politicization of crime.
According to him, “the increase in crime is as a result of deliberate politicization of security by the leaders in the helm of affairs, nobody politicizes security and live in peace.”
Commander Rissi recalled that even president Muhammadu Buhari in his recent speech acknowledged the fact that there is high rate of insecurity in the country, adding that it is therefore time for the government at all levels to start looking inwards.
The security expert therefore advised that Federal Government should immediately take the community policing seriously if they are really serious about combating crime and stop publicizing the issue before crime ravage the whole country.
Commander Rissi further pointed out the high level of political interest displayed in the proposed nationwide community policing. He cited the instance of the Neighbourhood Watch in Rivers State after being enacted into law by the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) but was unfortunately stopped by the federal government.
According to him, “the operation Omotekun launched in South West has kicked off earnestly without interruption. Today, crime is on a steady increase in Rivers State because the structure of the Nigeria police cannot combat crime effectively in our communities.
Rev. Rissi further stated that no matter the expertise of the police, a Sokoto Police Officer transferred to Rivers State would find it difficult to access the terrain of the communities in Rivers State without the support of the local indeginous people, adding that this is where well structured community policing comes in to give support to the police through relevant information.
He used the opportunity to call on the federal government to assign specific role to organized paramilitaries like Man O’War, VGN etc, adding that Man O’War was established by the federal government edict in 1951.
