Delta Online Publishers Urge Oborevwori To Assent Community Security Corps Bill

THE Delta Online Publishers Forum (DOPF) has urged Governor Sheriff Oborevwori to, as a matter of urgency, assent to the Delta State Community Security Corps Agency Law, 2025, which it described as a crucial step towards tackling rising insecurity across the state.
DOPF, in a letter addressed to the governor, signed by its Chairman, Emmanuel Enebeli, and Secretary, Shedrack Onitsha, said Delta State was facing growing security threats, including repeated attacks on farmers by armed herdsmen, kidnapping for ransom and other violent crimes that have led to loss of lives, destroyed livelihoods and undermined food production.
The Forum stated the Community Security Corps Agency Bill, passed by the state House of Assembly on July 22, last year, is designed to provide a more structured and legally backed framework for grassroots security and community policing.
“It is in this context that we respectfully urge Your Excellency to sign into law the Delta State Community Security Corps Agency Law, 2025, a critical security legislation passed by the Delta State House of Assembly on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, after due legislative process and Third reading.
“The law, sponsored by Isaac Anwuzia, Chairman of the House Committee on Peace and Security, repeals the 2020 version and was deliberately crafted to provide a more robust, structured and legally grounded framework for community-based policing and grassroots security across the state.
“The intention of the House was clear: To strengthen Delta State’s security architecture by establishing a formal Community Security Corps Agency that can complement conventional security agencies, like the Amotekun in the Southwest, improve intelligence gathering and respond swiftly to local security threats that federal forces alone are overstretched to handle.
“While we commend Your Excellency for assenting to the Delta State Anti-Terrorism and Anti-Cultism (Amendment) Law, 2025, and launching Delta State Security Trust Fund, we are constrained to express concern that the Delta State Community Security Corps Agency Law, which provides the operational backbone for effective grassroots security enforcement, has remained unsigned several months after passage.
“This delay raises troubling questions, especially when viewed against the fate of the Delta State Anti-Open Grazing Law, which, despite being enacted in the last dispensation, has largely remained dormant, even as Deltans continue to suffer violent attacks on their farms by marauding herdsmen. Laws without enforcement structures become symbolic documents, not instruments of protection.
“The current security climate makes the need for this law even more urgent. With reports of terrorist elements being displaced from the Northeast following recent international military operations, there is growing fear that criminal networks may seek refuge in relatively softer regions, including parts of the Niger Delta.”
DOPF stressed that signing the Bill into law should go hand in hand with the immediate establishment of clear structures for its implementation, including recruitment guidelines, training standards, funding mechanisms, oversight frameworks and coordination protocols with existing security agencies.
“We strongly believe that assenting to this law and activating its provisions will send a powerful message that your administration is proactive, people-centered, and determined to protect lives, investments, farmlands and communities, rather than reacting after irreparable damage has been done.
“As the New Year unfolds, we respectfully appeal to Your Excellency to present the signing and implementation of the Delta State Community Corps Agency Law, 2025, as a decisive gift to Deltans; a reassurance that their safety matters and that laws enacted in their name will not be allowed to gather dust on government shelves.”