Rivers: Neighbourhood Watch will not be like TIMARIV says Director General ….Assures Standard Training, Discipline

David Amusa, Port Harcourt

The Director-General of Rivers State Neighbourhood Safety Corp, Dr. Uche Chukwuma, has said that the Corp will be well organized and distinct unlike the defunct Rivers State Road Traffic Management Authority (TIMARIV) set up by previous administration that which he said was a mess.

Speaking in an interview with Global Patriot Newspapers in Port Harcourt, Dr. Chukwuma said, “We are not unaware of what TIMARIV left behind; the mess they left behind. It is not going to be anything near there. We are not going to condone indiscipline of any sort. We don’t want to see our men insulting our uniform, jumping on top of vehicles, harassing innocent citizens and beating up people”.

The DG stated that the Corp will inculcate discipline, which is very essential to the kind of work it will be engaged in and warned recruits into the Corp to steer clear of godfatherism and connections, pointing out that he would not tolerate any influence that would support indiscipline.

“I am not going to tolerate it. So, if you are coming on board as a recruit or personnel at the management, senior and junior levels, be sure you are coming to work with Dr. Uche Chukwuma and as far as I am the Director General, there will be nothing like godfather here because I didn’t have god father when I was working. So, I don’t want anybody to introduce godfather to me. Telephone calls will not influence my decisions”, he said.

“We are about embarking on recruitment. We actually will recruit Rivers indigenes but not one hundred percent. If you are resident in Rivers state and you do business here and you know the nooks and crannies and the culture of the people, you are qualified. Though the percentage may not be as high as the original owners, the Rivers people. For the first batch, we intend to recruit 3,000 as field officers and then a few other people for the headquarters as headquarter staff. We are expecting youths of 18 to 45 years. We have two categories, the junior category and officer category. The junior category will be school certificate holders from 18, 25 to 30 years and for the officer category we are looking at ages 25, 40 and 45”.

Dr. Chukwuma stated that those who were recruited would be given standard training for them to be efficient.

“We are going to give them all round training including para-military, psychology and professional training. When you look at the board we have retired professionals from the military, DSS and police. We have professional public relations officers, those who have been in the academia. We will all bring our resources together. We are not just going to take them to the street for training. We are going to take them to training depot that has name and then send professionals,retired officers and  experts from various fields to train them. We are also going to participate directly in the training, considering our wealth of experience”.

Dr. Chukwuma assured that with the kind of vision he has for the Corp that its critics will be put to shame.

He appealed to Rivers people to give the Corp a chance, assuring that the organization will reduce crime to the barest minimum.