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Is state police practicable in today’s situation? Those who kick against it may find evidence of their opposition in Rivers State. This is because the pilot scheme known as Rivers Neighbourhood Watch (RNW) has run into hitches of over 14 months unpaid salaries as well as failure to remit the agency’s subvention to run the scheme.
In June 2022, the operatives staged a protest, something security agencies are forbidden to do. This alone seemed to show that if state police is introduced, the sanctity of the police system may be so bastardised to the extent that formations would easily be going on strike against the cardinal rule of policing.
Next, rumours remained agog that the agency is yet to get any subvention or imprest since the first one given to them in 2018 to do recruitment and training. There may not have been any capital allocation to procure equipment and carry out top scientific investigations.
The operatives who came to the Brick House gates to complain managed to read out and submit appeals for attention, but more than one month after, not much response has been heard about their key worries and requests from the government that created them. Many wonder what it would be like if a new administration were to take over; if this much can befall the agency under the administration that created it.
The orphaned child
The RNW was created in the first term of Gov Nyesom Wike to take the war to criminals that were threatening the state. The opposition party raised alarm saying it was targeted at the next election (2019) and to hunt down opponents.
These led to two court cases that stopped the take-off of the scheme. The noisiest uproar seemed to be when the recruited operatives headed to Tai for training, only for the camp to be raided by soldiers who said they were suspected militants.
Parties rushed to court and the matters lingered until the elections came and went. The scheme however won.
The victory in court rather seemed to bring more trouble and pain than favour as both the opponents and the government that set them up simply walked away.
Despite directive to deploy them to the 23 local council headquarters since March 2021, the operatives said they have not been paid a kobo as salary, something that is seen as a dangerous phenomenon. Experts said it is dangerous to set operatives up and leave them without pay in the face of temptations from the underworld.
The seeming loss of interest in the state police scheme tended to give some boost to the accusation that they were set up for the 2019 election in the first place. This is because the clearance from the courts was no longer exploited to fund them, train them, and deploy them with equipment procurement. Both the proponents and opponents simply lost interest in the Corps.
Appeals
The operatives are thus asking for their salaries from March 2021 as well as kits and tools for work. They are also asking for subvention to the agency to run the scheme. This may lead to hope for promotions and other incentives when they crack big cases.
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They also want the governor to clear the allegation making the rounds that he gave the Director-General the sum of N2Bn for staff salary and that the DG allegedly paid it into his personal account and refused to pay the staff.
Impressive results, however?
Yet, the agency is being credited with strong results and accomplishments, though achievements of information-based security agencies hardly show before the public because their files remain confidential. The Rivers Neighbourhood Watch is directed to operate undercover and to report to a particular branch of special police squad in the state.
Sources said it did not take time before both parties lost interest in each other as the squad was said to have its interests to protect while the RNW appeared to be a distraction to them. In the state, almost every security agency seems to go after oil bunkerers to the neglect of other crimes.
The RNW was said to therefore concentrate in sending their reports to the topmost echelon of the police in the state. A source said the collaboration with the police command boosted performance of the undercover Corps.
Some of the breakthroughs credited to the Rivers Neighbourhood Watch include sending intelligence that led to invasion of oil bunkering sites, even those sites other security agencies wanted to ignore.
It was revealed that the real henchmen that sponsor oil bunkering stay in big hotels in the city and control what is happening in the forests and swamps, according to sources within the agency.
They were credited with making EndSARS violence in Rivers State less effective. Also, sources said the frequent discovery of buried corpses of victims of abduction in the state has abated because the RNW beamed attention to it with their undercover agents especially in the Etche and Ogoni axes.
Security analysts observed that whereas the police (due to lack of manpower and equipment) adopted reaction to crime as an approach, the RNW adopted information gathering and preventive system as they were trained to do.
The strategy that seems to work is that they report local observations to the divisional police officers (DPOs) in the 23 local council areas in the state, and the biggest ones are sent straight to the Commissioner of Police.
For instance, suspected hoodlums some months back in Khana local council area attacked a businessman, carted away his motorcycle and goods. The police was told and they swooped on the area, looked everywhere and did not find anything. The NWC men however went underground and made several contacts. Next, the police made another invasion and got the motorbike and the goods. These were returned to the trader with huge jubilation.
The killing of three policemen in Abual in Abual/Odual local council area was given attention by NWC operatives though the killers were not immediately located. But those who killed three persons in Andoni in May 2022 were tracked by the operatives to make their arrest a simple work.
Efforts to get the reaction of the government on the fate of the Rivers Neighbourhood Watch especially the 14 months salaries hit the rocks as the media aide to the governor (in the absence of a commissioner of information) referred the inquiry to the DG of the agency, Mike Chukwuma. The DG did not take his calls either.
Lessons:
Security analysts say the first lesson is that if the scheme was funded and implemented to the letter, Rivers State that is enjoying one of the safest environments would have been miles ahead in the nation. The killings at Emohua and Etche axes, ritual killings along Igbo-Etche, and the constant killings in Ogoni would have simply disappeared. The abductions around Eleme Road, and the dangers under the Eleme Ring Road and along Akpajo Road would have been nipped in the bud.
The next lesson is that state police may truly be a problem because governors may not really understand and thus appreciate the enormity of responsibility it requires. Their fleeting interests may play above the fundamentals of protection at all seasons.
