Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and National Orientation Agency (NOA), as well as civil society organisations, have expressed concern over reported cases of killing in Rivers State.
The agencies expressed their concerns yesterday, at a day stakeholders’ town hall meeting on the ‘rising killings in Rivers State’, organised by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), ‘We the People’, in Port Harcourt.
We the People Executive Director, Ken Henshaw, said Rivers has its share of the country’s growing insecurity problem, which seems to defy every effort at curbing it.
Henshaw said: “It is important to note that as days pass, the killings have become more daring, more regular and more horrific, raising troubling questions about the sanity and humanity of the perpetrators; but, also reinforcing the need to account for the unnecessary death of Nigerians.”
NSCDC Head of Crisis Management, Assistant Commandant Lucy Adire, urged the public to cooperate with the corps to fight insecurity in the society.
Adire stressed that security agencies need credible information from the public in their fight against criminality, cautioning that giving coverage to criminals would increase violent crimes in the state.