A pro-All Progressives Congress group in Rivers State known as Free Rivers Development Initiative said that it had begun the screening of candidates for the leadership of a parallel security outfit in the state.
President of the group, Mr. Sampson Ngerebara, explained that the state APC was going ahead with its threat to form a rival Neighbourhood Safety Corps should the State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, fail to ensure the amendment of some clauses contained in law establishing the state security outfit.
It will be recalled that the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, had given his assent to the bill creating the Neighbourhood Safety Corps in the state.
Ngerebara, who spoke with newsmen in Port Harcourt, described some of the clauses in the Neighbourhood Safety Corps law as obnoxious.
He restated that the outfit was created to fight members of the opposition, adding that the parallel security outfit that would be created would protect members of the opposition party.
He said, “If Nyesom Wike refuses to listen to the voice of reason and the voice of the masses, then we (APC) are going to set up a parallel security outfit to protect ourselves.
“As I speak with you, we have designed the forms for prospective members and we are already screening people who are going to head it. We are looking for people who are not politicians, but are professionals in security business.
“If all efforts to correct the anomalies in the law through legal means fail, then the party will take steps to protect itself.
“As a matter of duty, we the (APC) raised objections to these obnoxious clauses; we called the attention of the public because it is only the Federal Government that can provide arms to any group and not the state.
“So, for the State House of Assembly to pass a bill for Rivers State Government to arm youths is wrong,” Ngerebara added.
But the State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Emma Okah, dared the APC group to set up a parallel security outfit, adding that no responsible government would allow such (establishing a parallel security outfit) to happen.
Okah, who said the APC was planning to cause anarchy in the state, cautioned that nobody would be allowed to take the law into their hands, adding that those who were opposed to the law should go to court.
“We have said it that nobody can take the law into their hands. No responsible government will allow anybody to engage in such illegality. We dare them to do it (form a parallel Neighbourhood Safety Corps).
“But I assure you that we will not fold our hands and allow anybody to perpetrate illegality,” Okah stressed.
