City Crime
Of Taskforce And Hoodlums
Only recently, a six-member taskforce pursued a truck carrying bundles of iron from Eliozu to Rumuodomaya in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of River State.
They had chased the trailer driver coming from Aba in Abia State from Eliozu, where the office of their principals is.
The six-member taskforce was determined to extort money from the trailer driver, either by hook or crook. They had hired a small white bus to chase the fleeing trailer driver. Three of the taskforce members alighted from the bus, climbed onto the moving truck and pummeled the driver with blows. They had ransacked and emptied his pockets in search of money to steal but the truck driver was not deterred and did not bulge. He could not stop because he did not know what the assailants were up to. He had no inkling about whether they were legitimate or not.
One of his assailants got hold of a noxious liquid and administered same to his eyes. As the driver bent down to evade the onslaught, the trailer veered, smashed a yellow Nissan Xterra Jeep with registration number: EKY 298CC and ended up in a gutter. But for the bashing of the Nissan Xterra jeep which caused the trailer to stop, many citizens at the National Identity Registration Centre would have been killed.
As soon as the taskforce members noticed the damage they had caused, they fled for their lives as a crowd that had gathered around the scene chased them. But one of the taskforce members was caught by the mob as he ran out of luck. He was seriously manhandled but the vehicle owner, a legal practitioner, who did not want him to be killed, implored the mob to hand him over to law enforcement agents. The matter was reported at the Rumuodomaya Special Area Division in Obio/Akpor Local Government of Rivers State.
The two suspects caught by good citizens of Rivers State were handed over to the police in that division and detained therein.
At Rumuigbo, a similar incident occurred. Also, at Mile 3, Diobu; Port Harcourt, The Tide gathered another incident had also unleashed mayhem.
The Mile 3 incident, according to an eye witness, provoked commercial drivers bearing machetes to block the road.
Our source disclosed that it took the intervention of officers and men of the Nigerian police to quell the rampage.
For the umpteenth time, taskforce members wreaked havoc in the state. The state government had earlier banned the use of taskforce following the ugly incidents that occasioned their revenue drives. The present taskforce that has started on a bad note, The Tide gathered, is purportedly assigned to check wrong parking.
Unfortunately, the taskforce members are faceless people drawn from hoodlums and a preponderance of jobless people. Most of them, according to reports, are not only unemployed but are also unemployable. Hooliganism and ruthlessness are their stock-in- trade. They execute benumbing cruelty on their victims. Sometimes, they kill, maim and rob their victims in the name of raking in revenue for government. They are in the semblance of the biblical Devil whose mission is to steal, kill and destroy.
Unfortunately, this class of taskforce members does not carry identity cards. They are not given any by their principals but are simply foisted on the society to wreak havoc and unleash mayhem. For them it is the survival of the fittest, and the society is worse for it. It is pathetic that this kind of thing is happening in the 21st century, when the world has become a global village and most of these ugly scenes are posted on the social media.
Regrettably, the negative image the activities of the hoodlums’ paint can only be imagined, no wonder, our country is often referred to as a shithole country. But what manner of revenue collection requires touts to jump into a moving trailer. Apart from endangering their own lives and that of the vehicle driver, the entire society is at risk in the unfolding drama of the absurd.
Two years back, a female police officer was killed when she was on traffic duty around the Rumukrushe axis of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state. A stray bullet had hit her skull and killed her immediately when another policeman had shot at hawkers in the area. The police woman who was married with three children was felled in a disgusting manner. As she lay in the pool of her own blood, she was posted on the social media.
The state governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, summarily disbanded the task force and it was soothing to many frayed nerves. It also alleviated the pains of those in business and right-thinking members of the society.
The word “task force, according to Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary is “a military force that is brought together and sent to a particular place, (2) a group of people, who are a brought together to deal with a particular problem.”
When one looks closely at the definition of the word “task force”, one is bound to find out that the concept of taskforce precludes an assembly of rejects of the society or hoodlums who are taking a toll on a society that has no place for them. Task forces are constituted to deal with certain problems and not as revenue agents. They are often on adhoc basis and once the problem is solved, they are disbanded.
Again, trap setting for members of the society is not one of functions of government. A government that lures its citizens into crime with the aim of extorting them for the sake revenue is at best a totalitarian one. That is why the prosecution of criminal wrongs ends up in imprisonment. Only minor criminal wrongs are given the option of fine.
The use of a task force that bastardizes the psyche of the society often attracts deprecatory comments about the government in power.
A taskforce consisting of faceless citizens with the sole aim of extorting money from drivers can only originate from illegality. It is a nullity. You cannot put something on nothing. In civilized countries, the police are in charge of traffic not hoodlums or taskforce. Traffic policemen or traffic wardens are in charge of traffic related offences. Traffic offences are quasi- criminal matters and their punishments are not as severe as such that is why policemen who are knowledgeable in law should handle it. Again, no person can be punished for any crime which is not written in any legal code. Crimes and punishments are codified. Among the various taskforces, the amount of money extorted from vehicle drivers depends on largely on the naivety of their victims. The drivers that are greatly extorted are the ones that come from other states.
The taskforce set up by National Union of Road Transport Workers is the most vicious one. It works with benumbing insensitivity to the plight of its victims.
More pathetic is the fact that the task forces have no adjudicatory mechanism to prove the validity of their allegations against the so-to-speak defendants. They are the police and the court at same time. They allege, arraign, try and punish offenders, all by themselves. The right of fair hearing enshrined in Section 36 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) is at best jettisoned. The barbarity of the process stares every right-thinking Nigerian in the face.
Pathetically, taskforce members drawn from hoodlums are anti-society. Moreover, since most of them are on a daily pay, they can afford to commit crimes and go scot free. This is because there is certainly no means of identifying who they are. They fizzle into thin air on the least apprehension of danger and the society is victimized.
One hardly understands where members of the taskforce derive their powers to harass and molest innocent citizens. There is obviously no statute backing the use of anonymous and faceless citizens as members of a taskforce to cause mayhem in the society.
The police that are enlisted in the Nigeria police, wear name tags and numbers and can be identified with a specific police division. Taskforce members are everywhere and recruited from everywhere. A policeman that pleaded anonymity told The Tide that one of the frequent cases that attended Police stations in recent times had to do with the excesses and depravity of the taskforce: an uncouth assemblage of hoodlums. Indeed, nothing good can come from this kind of arrangement.
On the one hand, some taskforces are established by government but a preponderance of others that take liberty for license aren’t. They are impersonators. There is grave danger in assigning specific duties to taskforce members that are not profiled. Again, making taskforce assignment exclusively for hoodlums goes against the grain. Those who are not trained and have no conscience put the society at risk. Power of any kind must not be given to men of questionable characters.
On the other hand, if government does not establish a taskforce with a relevant legislation who does that? Again, is there any provision in any extant statute authorising the use of a taskforce peopled by hoodlums?
Interestingly, every organization established by government is a creation of the law, and it derives its power from the law. Where an organization or body is not created by the law, it is nonexistent. Any act done by such a body or purported to be done such non-existent body is null and void. That is why the operation of the taskforce set up by the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) without the necessary backing by the law can at best be described as an illegality.
In Lagos State, there is the Lagos State Ministry of Transport fondly referred to as LASMA, which levies fine on vehicle drivers that violate traffic regulations. The Ministry can be taken to court when the rights of drivers and vehicle owners are violated. But faceless task force members without proper means of identification are a grave danger to the society.
Years ago, the Rivers State Ministry of Transport used a taskforce simply referred to as MOT to deal with ubiquitous wrong parking of vehicles, obstruction of traffic and sundry other traffic offences and it was good.
MOT could sue and be sued.
What is very offensive today is that members of taskforce depend solely on what they are able to rake in on a daily basis to get paid. This again, is bound to cause problem as “man must eat” syndrome relieves them of any sense of responsibility and justice. Members of taskforce today are not profiled; they cannot sue and cannot be sued especially as they are faceless.
But how long will the society remain in this ugly state of affairs. There are indications that more illegal taskforces are likely to emerge as 2023 draws nearer.
By: Chidi Enyie
Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, has explained that he is guided by the commitment to deliver projects that are strategic and significant towards improving the lives of people in the State on an enduring scale.
The Governor made the explanation during the inauguration of the remodelled Government Girls’ Secondary School in Ahoada Town, Ahoada East Local Government Area on Friday.
At the event, Governor Fubara was conferred with the traditional title of Eze Yawe Ugo of Ekpeye land (The King who brings happiness and joy to Ekpeye land) by the Ekpeye Council of Traditional Rulers.
Governor Fubara stated that he inherited the school project when he assumed office on May 29, 2024, and decided to continue with the three contractors because education issue is a top priority in his administration.
He said that the investment made will definitely translate into providing quality educational training for the girl-child in the area to become bold, resourceful and responsible citizens.
The Governor noted, “So, we will not celebrate things that will not have meaning. That is why we are here today to inaugurate this school, a special school for people that are going to be mothers in this great nation.
“They are people that will be wives to great men. And if you don’t produce a quality girl-child, it means the nation is gone. So, you can see, everybody can attest that we are strategic; it is not just doing, but doing what is right.
“I assure our people that we will not do anything that we cannot stand and be proud of ourselves that we did something right.”
Governor Fubara said when he declared, last Wednesday, that he will be the first Governor, in the last eight years, to deliver pro-people projects in Omuma Local Government Area, most people did not understand the import of his revelation.
But Governor Fubara insisted that what his administration is doing is separate from what has happened in the past, as according to him, projects’ delivery is not for mere fanfare but strategically provided to address critical development needs of the people.
He added, “I stand here to say that even if there was a project commissioned at that time (in Omuma), it was a farm road. It has no connection to anything.
“The project we are commissioning has significance, and that is what we should be talking about… We are talking about projects that will add value to the lives of the people that you have decided to govern with the support of your people.”
Governor Fubara took a swipe at someone he described as ‘a data boy and an online dog seller’ who knows nothing about governance despite being close to a Governor for eight years.
He wondered the impetus of the ‘data boy’ who, reportedly, reacted to the projects delivered in Etche-Omuma, without understanding the overarching impact of the project on the people.
He said, “On Wednesday this week, we inaugurated a project: an 11.8km Okehi-Umuola-Eberi link road. It is a road that connects Omuma and Etche Local Government Areas.
“And we made very bold statement there to say that, very soon, we will be going to Omuma to also inaugurate another project. And we challenged them that the project we are going to commission in Omuma will be the first project that they are seeing.
“A few days later, those people who felt that the only thing that they can do to survive is social media and to sell dogs. I wonder why you will go to school, your parents will spend money, and the only profession you chose is to be a data boy and to sell dogs.
“If they love you, the appointment they gave to one boy the other day, if you were good, why didn’t they give you that appointment? Go and check yourself, something is wrong with you.
“It is not about coming (on social media) to abuse people; think about your life. Are you living a quality life? Even if you are asked to abuse people, at times, you should ask: what will people talk about me, knowing fully well that what I will say is not true?”
Governor Fubara expressed appreciation to Ekpeye people for their unalloyed support to his administration in the face of harassment and intimidation.
He said that some of their traditional rulers: Eze Ekpeye Logbo, His Imperial Majesty, Eze Kelvin Anugwo; and Eze Cassidy Ikegbidi were harassed and arrested while the Chief of Staff, Government House, Dr Edison Ehie, was declared wanted by the Nigeria Police Force on trumped up charges.
He said, “When the Eze Ekpeye was talking, a lot of you didn’t understand what happened. Because of their support for me, he was arrested, charged on false accusations. He stayed in police custody for more than four months; himself and Cassidy.
“We are not even talking about my Chief of Staff. Because of the support that he has publicly displayed, he was even declared wanted so that they can, maybe, reduce our influence.
“But the truth is always very clear: enemy has a time, his team cannot last forever. And I can assure you with all boldness today that they are gradually coming to an end.
“What we just need is to be patient. We have promised that our tactics will be following this process with patience and the fear of God. And we will get there.”
Governor Fubara promised to grant the request made by the Eze Ekpeye Logbo and other traditional rulers to recognise some designated traditional stools.
He also said that when he drove on the access road during project inspection tour, he decided to reconstruct the road, which has started, and assured that with availability of funds, the remaining 1km and the bridge will be attended to.
Governor Fubara said the contract for the internal roads will be revoked and re-awarded to a competent contractor who will deliver the project in line with the mantra of the administration.
Providing the project description, Rivers State Commissioner for Education, Dr Ovy Chinedum Chukwuma, said there are three distinct buildings handled separately by three contractors: Mcaretrace Nigeria Limited – Lot A; Azunda International Company Nigeria Limited – Lot B; and Ketdeg Ventures – Lot C.
Dr Chukwuma explained that there are two blocks of 12 classrooms, making a total of 24 classrooms; common rooms; science laboratories fitted with computers for chemistry, physics, agriculture and biology.
There is a library; he said, an Assembly Hall; offices; stores; Principal Quarters of 3-bedroom semi- detached bungalow; Vice Principal Quarters of 2-bedroom block of 4 flats of one-storey building.
Dr Chukwuma also listed an administrative block of offices, staff common rooms and conveniences, generator house with 2 nos 40KVA sound proof generator, gatehouse, roads and landscaping, perimeter fencing, overhead water tank for supply, and sports facilities.
In his welcome address, Executive Chairman of Ahoada East Local Government Area, Chibudom Ezu, said that as the only girls secondary school, it had suffered neglect over the years with the structures becoming dilapidated, hideout for miscreants and unfit for academic activities, and thanked the Governor for his intervention.
Speaking on behalf of the three separate indigenous contractors, Engr Azubuike Odum of Azunda International Company Nigeria Limited, said in October, 2023, Governor Fubara had charged them to speed up the work while adhering to agreed specifications, and thanked the Governor for the opportunity given them to serve the State.
The Rivers State Government says the administration of Governor Siminalayi Fubara is taking practical steps to revitalize the tourism sector in the State and promote its rich cultural heritage to make Rivers State a premier destination for investment in culture and tourism.
The Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Hon. Israel Lebura Ngbuelo stated this at the opening ceremony of the Abuja International Carnival 2024.
He said beside the huge investment on security and critical infrastructure, Fubara is determined to fully harness the tourism potentials and rich cultural heritage of the State for the sustainable growth and economic prosperity of Rivers State.
Dr. Ngbuelo said several initiatives by the governor are ongoing to make Rivers State a choice tourism destination, thereby fostering social cohesion and making tourism a viable alternative revenue source in Rivers State, to boost the revenue of the State and promote sustainable development.
He said the initiatives include the current move to activate the long-abandoned Port Harcourt Tourist Beach to become a treasure center for the promotion of arts, culture and tourism.
Dr. Ngbuelo said concrete steps are also being taken by the governor to resuscitate the abandoned Rex Lawson Cultural Centre in the old Port Harcourt Township with the goal of maximizing its utilization including establishing an Art and Culture Training School at the center.
The Commissioner said investments in culture and tourism are not only safe in Rivers State but also guaranteed to thrive due to the sustained peace and security in the State as a result of the commendable efforts of the governor in the area of security of lives and properties in the State.
The Commissioner led the Rivers State contingent to a scintillating, spectacular and superlative outing at the Abuja International Carnival 2024.
The contingent which comprised diverse cultural troupes from across the 23 local government areas of Rivers State, showcased colourful and stunning Rivers costumes as they marched through the major streets of Abuja to the Eagle Square, venue of the Carnival where they mesmerized the audience with their phenomenon performances.
Dr. Ngbuelo expressed optimism that Rivers State would emerge victorious in all categories of competition at the Carnival due to the level of preparedness of the State as well as its rich and unique culture.
He said besides personally rehearsing with the troupes and supervising them to ensure a good outing, Fubara graciously provided all that they requested.
The Federal Lawmaker representing Andoni/Opobo/Nkoro Federal Constituency Hon. Dr. Awaji-Inombek Abiante, the Rivers State Commissioner for Physical and Urban Development Rt. Hon. Evans Bipi, Local Government Chairmen, political appointees and other Stakeholders were among dignitaries and guests from Rivers State who graced the Abuja International Carnival 2024.
The Rivers State Government has vowed to enforce strict compliance with approved building plans by property owners and developers in the State to guarantee safety and adherence to regulatory standards.
The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Rt. Hon. Evans Bipi, in his inaugural meeting with the Permanent Secretary, Directors and staff of the Ministry, said he would ensure full implementation of the Physical Planning Development Law of the State.
He warned that the Rivers State Government will no longer condone a situation where developers make deliberate adjustment or completely deviate from approved building plan in the execution of their projects without recourse to the Ministry.
Hon. Bipi solicited the cooperation of the civil servants of the Ministry while promising to run an open door policy and be easily accessible.
He also promised to right the wrongs, make a positive impact and leave an enduring legacy in the Ministry.
He promised to enhance the physical landscape and aesthetic of Old and New GRA as well as other parts of Port Harcourt.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development, Surv. Wisdom Hebron, assured the Commissioner of maximum cooperation to foster a harmonious working environment.
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