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Police against public executions by vigilantes

    ABIDJAN

    Nigeria’s police chiefs have vowed to stamp out the practice by vigilante groups of executing suspected robbers, BBC reported. The vigilantes, including the Bakassi Boys in the southeast and the banned Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) in the Lagos area, often decapitate suspects or set them on fire.

    The police and human rights organisations oppose such extrajudicial executions because they are illegal and undermine police authority. “The idea of arresting people and, through more violence, killing them on the spot and burning their bodies - that is not the kind of Nigeria we want,” BBC quoted Adbul Oroh of the Civil Rights Organization as saying.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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