Rights activist and former Senatorial candidate in Anambra South senatorial district, Barr. Chukwudi Ezeobika, has called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun, “to regulate or disband vigilante groups to protect the rights of citizens provided for, guaranteed and preserved under our laws”.
Ezeobika, a former national legal adviser, Inter Party Advisory Council of Nigeria (IPAC), stated that continued existence of vigilante groups across the country as presently structured would be an affirmation of failure of the Nigeria Police Force.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ezeobika stated that “protracted assault and inhuman treatment of Nigerian citizens resident in Anambra state under the watchful eyes of the authorities was reprehensible and utterly disgraceful”.
Citing “recent assault and barbaric attacks on innocent NYSC members in Anambra state, especially that on Miss Jennifer Edema Elohor and her colleagues”, “clearly demonstrated the inability of the Nigeria Police in managing the conduct of vigilante groups across the country”.
The statement further said the groups “have become an oppressive tool in the hands of state governors and an avenue for proliferation of arms,
particularly small arms and light weapons (SALW), to unauthorised individuals or groups.
“Retention of vigilante groups by the Nigerian state portends a grave danger to the nation’s nascent democracy hence, my demand for their immediate and outright dissolution and disbandment.
“The frequent harassment, intimidation, assault and illegal detentions of Nigerian citizens across the states of the federation by local vigilante groups, occasioned by their deplorable levels of training, education and professionalism, call to question the legality of such groups under our laws.
“The current use of vigilante groups by the governor of Anambra state and many others in the enforcement of tax laws, debt collections, modes of dressing, especially by women, paints a very dark picture of a person who has chaired an institution of government at the federal level.
“With the current unprecedented level of youth unemployment in Nigeria, it has become expedient and incumbent on the Inspector General of Police to ensure that adequate personnel are recruited into the force to effectively carry out their duties of ensuring the safety and security of lives and property of citizens”.
He also called for the reduction or total withdrawal of thousands of police personnel attached to private individuals, companies and organisations to make policing adequate and visible not only at the airports but wherever their presence might be required.
