Online Publishers Call on Oborevwori to Sign Community Security Corps Law as Insecurity Spreads

The Delta Online Publishers Forum (DOPF)  has urged Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to urgently assent to and implement the Delta State Community Security Corps Agency Law, 2025, warning that escalating attacks by armed herdsmen, kidnapping for ransom and other violent crimes are endangering lives, farmlands and public confidence across the state.

In a strongly worded letter jointly signed by the Chairman of the Forum, Emmanuel Enebeli, and the Secretary, Shedrack Onitsha, the group said the law, passed by the Delta State House of Assembly on July 22, 2025, provides a vital legal framework for community-based policing and grassroots security and should no longer remain unsigned months after its passage.

The Forum noted that the bill, sponsored by the Chairman of the House Committee on Peace and Security, Hon. (Dr.) Isaac Anwuzia, repeals the 2020 version and is designed to establish a formal Community Security Corps Agency that would complement conventional security agencies, enhance intelligence gathering and enable rapid response to local threats, similar to the Amotekun model in the South-West.

While commending Governor Oborevwori for assenting to the Anti-Terrorism and Anti-Cultism (Amendment) Law, 2025, and launching the Delta State Security Trust Fund, the Forum expressed concern that the Community Security Corps Agency Law, described as the operational backbone of effective grassroots security, has remained on the shelf.

It warned that the delay mirrors the fate of the Delta State Anti-Open Grazing Law, which has largely remained unenforced despite persistent attacks on farmers by armed herdsmen, stressing that laws without clear enforcement structures risk becoming mere “symbolic documents.”

The Association also raised alarm over security reports suggesting that criminal and terrorist elements displaced from the North-East could seek refuge in relatively peaceful parts of the Niger Delta, making the activation of a structured community security outfit more urgent than ever.

According to the Forum, assenting to and implementing the law would demonstrate a proactive, people-centred approach to security and serve as a reassuring New Year gift to the people of Delta State.