Stop using vigilante groups, NGOs say

Two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have urged state governments in southeastern Nigeria to stop using vigilantes as crime fighters. The call by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Centre for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN) followed reports that Ebonyi State was planning to use the services of a notorious vigilante group. HRW and CLEEN said in a statement on Friday that the group, known as the Bakassi Boys, was responsible for numerous human rights violations in the southeastern states of Anambra, Abia and Imo. The abuses included extrajudicial killings, public burnings, mutilations, torture and unlawful detentions, they said. The Bakassi Boys have been particularly active in recent weeks in the Anambra capital, Onitsha. HRW said it reportedly killed more than 20 people, including several women, in the town in the last week of May and many others in mid-June. The two human rights groups said their appeal was in response to recent reports that the governor of Ebonyi, Sam Egwu, was planning to sign a law establishing the Bakassi Boys in his state. "We recognize high levels of violent crime pose a serious problem in many parts of Nigeria," Innocent Chukwuma, executive director of CLEEN, said, "but the solution is not to continue resorting to extrajudicial means or to support vigilante violence." The two organisations appealed to Nigeria's federal government to ensure effective, long-lasting solutions to the problems of widespread crime and increasing vigilante violence in the country. On 20 May, HRW and CLEEN produced a detailed report of the activities of the Bakassi Boys. The report, titled "The Bakassi Boys: The Legitimization of Murder and Torture", is available at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/nigeria2