Ben Ezechime, Enugu
A Labour Party Chieftain in Enugu State, Mr. Onuora Odo has called for an urgent reorganisation of the activities of neighborhood watch and forest guard in Enugu State.
Odo, who is also a Chairmanship Aspirant for Igboeze North Local Government Council in the much anticipated October election in the state, made the call in a public statement released to Journalists in Enugu.
The human rights lawyer said the call became necessary following the recent avoidable killings of innocent citizens by officers and men of Neighbourhood Watch security outfit in Igboeze North.
Odo expressed his disappointment over the modus operandi of the security outfit.
According to him: “It’s really worrisome that an outfit that was created to protect lives and property has now turned out to be killers of same people they are supposed to protect.”
Speaking further, Odo posited that the purpose for the creation of the outfit has been defeated.
The Labour Party chieftain advised the Government of Enugu State to do the needful by training and retraining of the neighbourhood watch officers, pointing out that over 90 per cent of them were not trained.
“In most cases, some of them are almost always on cheap drugs to the extent that the temptation to shoot, whether provoked or unprovoked, is on the high side.
“Again, they are not properly funded, that’s why you see them dabbling into duties that are not within their jurisdictional competence.
“These days, officers and men of Neighbourhood Watch security outfit treat issues like marriage issues, land issues, debt recovery, assault and what have you.
“The truth is that you don’t arm a man who is hungry because the person has a very high tendency of resorting to crime in order to put food on his table,” he said.
He also urged the government to look into neighborhood watch recruitment process.
He said this was because it would be counter productive if a drug addict or someone with criminal record is recruited.
“I want to advise that there is an urgent need to sanitise the outfit for a better operational efficiency.
“On a final note, I want to appeal to the government of the day to, as a matter of urgency, to constitute a Security Advisory Committee that will be saddled with the responsibility of advising, training and re-training of the body,” Odo said.
