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Ebonyi State in southeastern Nigeria has formed a vigilante force, making it the fourth state in the southeast to adopt the use of militia groups to fight crime.
"The bill creating the vigilante group has been passed by the state assembly and was signed into law by the governor on Friday," an aide to Governor Sam Egwu told IRIN.
Similar vigilante groups, known as Bakassi Boys, have been operating for two years in Anambra, Abia and Imo states, where they are alleged to have killed hundreds of suspected criminals. Most of the suspects were decapitated and set on fire in public.
An overstretched police force of about 140,000 has been unable to contain crime in Africa’s most populous country, which has about 120 million inhabitants. This has led some state governments and communities to seek alternative means of fighting crime such as the use of the Bakassi Boys and their counterpart in the southwest, the Oodua People’s Congress.
The vigilantes' activities have drawn widespread condemnation from local and international human rights groups, which have called on the federal government to ban their use. Such calls have been resisted by state governors, who insist on their right to make laws for the security of their areas under Nigeria’s federal system.
Joseph Chukwu, spokesman for Ebonyi's governor, said the vigilante body set up by the state would only complement the police and would not engage in extrajudicial killings. "We want to avoid any miscarriage of justice, so suspects arrested will be handed over to the police," he told reporters.
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
