Northern States Increasingly Relying On Vigilantes For Policing

Editors Note; Written By by Ejike Ejike, Tarkaa David, Abu Nmodu, Godwin Enna and Najib Sani, Originally published in leadership

| Consequences Reflect In Niger White Paper On Mazakuka Killings
| Experts Seek Regulations, Training
| 40% Of Teachers In North East Killed By Terrorists

Faced with rising cases of banditry, kidnappings and terror attacks, state governors in many northern states are increasingly turning to vigilantism due to the poor presence of the Nigerian Police and other security agencies in their states.

A number of the state governors, including Aminu Masari of Katsina and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, had in the past called on citizens to arm themselves, even though they stood by the position of President Muhammadu Buhari not to support the creation of state police.

However, unfazed by resistance from federal authorities, southwestern states in 2020 passed laws for the creation of the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun.

Many of the states are acutely under-policed with Governor Masari not long ago declaring that there were only 5,000 policemen in Katsina State of over five million residents. He would later unveil plans to deploy 3,000 trained vigilantes to assist security operatives in tackling banditry and other related crimes in the state.

And in Gombe state, for example, there are a total of 4, 622 police officers spread across police divisions, outposts and area offices in the 114 wards of the state.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the state command, Mahid Mu’azu Abubakar, who disclosed this figure to our correspondent, said there are also three voluntary security groups that include two hunter groups and one vigilante organisation.

Though the threat posed by Boko Haram has decreased in recent years, Borno state has been at the forefront of conscripting citizens as hunters and vigilantes to aid security agencies in the war against insurgents.

The consequences of using ragtag vigilante groups to meet policing needs has reflected in the White Paper Committee on the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the case of killings, injuries and abductions in Mazakuka, Kulho, Adogon Mallam and environs in Mashegu Local Government Area of Niger state.

The community is not the first in the north where vigilantes have engaged in reprisal attacks, either against criminal elements or known bandits, which ended up leading to casualties among the civilian population.

In April 2021, no fewer than 20 persons were killed within two days in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State after bandits attacked Ruean-Tofa after which some vigilantes embarked on reprisal attacks.

In the Niger State white paper, 44 local vigilantes were identified as prime suspects in the October 2021 reprisal attack which led to the killing of 19 people, the abduction of 19 others out of which eight were killed, while 11 regained freedom after the payment of ransom. The reprisal took place

The state government has set up two committees to scrutinize the report.

Chairman of the White Paper Committee, Dr Jonathan Wasa, disclosed this at Government House, Minna, Niger State after submitting the report of the Committee to the state executive council.

He said, for a lasting peace, one of the two committees would look at the possibility of compensating those who incurred losses while the other would chart the way for peace and reconciliation.

In the absence of state policing in the north, security experts are weighing in on the challenges confronting the governors and how best to manage the difficult situation.

The secretary general, International Institute of Professional Security (IIPS), Dr. Abdullahi Mohammed Jabi, said vigilante groups is a creation of the law and should be strengthened to bridge the gap in the nation’s security architecture.

He rather called on the relevant authorities to overhaul the local vigilance system.

He said, “It is a creation of the law. By that, they have legal framework for their operational activities. The missing link is that a good number of them ran into the job because of joblessness in the society, and the state government and other individuals are supposed to cater for their training.

“You know, training and capacity building are capital intensive. So, the government that is using them and paying them next to nothing in terms of allowances should organise regular training for them on arms handling and usage, on procedure for arrest and handover to police, not them taking it upon themselves to assume the role of the police.”

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He said there was the need to sensitise the vigilantes to make them understand the limit to their powers and not to lord over others, thereby becoming law unto themselves.

“There should be more awareness on the part of the government and other relevant stakeholders to train them on what the law expects and empower them so they can know where their power starts, where it ends, their limitations in law, what they can do, what they cannot do.”

He noted that people now see insecurity as an opportunity to get means of livelihood rather than make their own contributions to society.

“There are good ones among them, well educated. There are ex-servicemen among them that are doing well but the training is not sufficient for them to be professional in the line of duty, so that is the challenge we need to work on, so the government needs to look into it critically.

“That we need help, yes, since the law has not permitted state police and community police; that is the gap we have to sanitise the system, not disband them to give the criminals the opportunity to do whatever they want.”

Jabi said government should rather collaborate with the International Institute of Professional Security (IIPS) to build the capacity of local vigilantes for them to fill in the gap and make the society safer, stable, and orderly so that individuals can carry out their economic activities without hindrance.

“We need them because we know that the policing system in Nigeria is very poor. It is one police man to 500 people. That is not the standard by United Nations, because they are not recruiting yearly to fill in the gap of those that were killed, those who died in the hands of duty, those who had a natural death and all that,” he stated.

Meanwhile, a security expert, Adewumi Badiora, said while state police was almost invariably weak, Nigerian citizens are not without policing services. Vigilantism appears to be a response to ambivalence and discontent about the authority of the state.

According to him, the vigilantism movement in Nigeria has a long history.

He said, “In the Yoruba-speaking south-west, crime fighting has been led by the O’odua People’s Congress; in the eastern states by the Bakassi Boys, and across the north by Shari‘a implementation committees or Hisba.

“There are two ways of seeing vigilantism. One is to see it as community self-help policing groups that protect the public through the law enforcement style of policing. The other way is to see it as the killing of one or more people by groups of citizens without government authority. This is violent vigilantism.

“I see vigilantism in the first sense, as non-state policing. Because some Nigerian states have regulated it through legislation, vigilantes have a degree of authority and power.

“Overall, I found that public support for and satisfaction with vigilantism or non-state police is influenced by policing strategies that build legitimacy. If the state had clear standards and supervision for this kind of policing, it could be a more effective way of countering crime.

Some Nigerian states have responded to the growth of vigilantism — that is, the law enforcement style – by enacting legislation to regulate it.

For instance, in 2016, the Lagos State House of Assembly passed a law to establish the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Agency. It regulates and controls vigilante activities.

“The law was intended to ensure that emerging serious crimes did not take root in Lagos State. The new agency integrated the existing personnel of the vigilante groups if they had competence and integrity.

“The neighbourhood corps are uniformed and operating within all local government areas. Its formal policing functions are to protect communities, maintain law and order, respond to emergencies, cooperate with law enforcement personnel and share information.”

He, however, stated that vigilantes need to acknowledge the basic dignity and rights of citizens, to account for decisions that affect them, and to make their decisions in a neutral and objective way. Brutal and violent methods of dealing with offenders should be avoided.

Terrorists Kill Over 40 per cent Of Teachers In North-East

Meanwhile, over 40 percent of teachers have been killed in the North-East following the activities of Boko Haram terrorists in the zone.

Managing director, North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Alkali, disclosed this at the 50th session of the State House briefing organised by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He explained that teachers continue to be the primary target of Boko Haram terrorists in the zone.

The commission, according to him, prioritised the training of teachers in the region because their ranks had been substantially depleted by the insurgents.

“The scarcest product now, not only in Nigeria but elsewhere, is teachers. In the North-East, over 40-50 percent of teachers have either been killed or something has happened to them, because of the insurgency; they are the primary target of those people,” he explained.

He added that the commission needed more teachers in the region in order to ensure effective teaching.

Alkali said that the 13-year insurgency in the North-East geo-political zone had affected so many infrastructures, even as he said that the federal government had completed the construction of 1,000 housing units as part of its resettlement efforts for millions of inhabitants displaced.

He said the houses had been distributed to various households.

According to him, the houses, which cost N17.5bn, were built in Ngwom, Borno, with plans to build 500 housing units each in five other affected States.

He further stated that the commission had created an Education Endowment Fund with a seed capital of N6bn with plans to dedicate 10 percent of its annual allocation to the Fund, disclosing that lack of robust education system had fuelled the insurgency in the zone.

He said that the NEDC required at least N31.05tn to be able to execute its mandate, according to the North-East Stabilisation and Development Master Plan in the next 10 years.