Nigeria hailed over vigilante crack down

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday welcomed a recent decision by the Nigerian government to crack down on a vigilante group, the Bakassi Boys. HRW in a letter to Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo said it had documented grave human rights abuses committed by the Bakassi Boys in the southeastern Nigerian states of Abia and Anambra. Deploring the federal government’s failure to act earlier, it however urged the president to implement longer-lasting reforms of the police to ensure that law and order are restored. "If the federal government and police had taken action earlier, they could have saved hundreds of people from torture or killings at the hands of the Bakassi Boys," Peter Takirambudde, executive director of the Africa Division of HRW said. "But action now is obviously better late than never," he added. Nigerian police have recently launched operations in Abia and Anambra states that led to the arrests of some Bakassi Boys and release of people detained unlawfully by the group, most of whom had been subjected to horrific torture and mutilation. In May, HRW and the Lagos-based Centre for Law Enforcement Education (CLEEN), published a detailed report documenting a range of serious human rights abuses by the vigilante group. This included a pattern of extrajudicial killings, torture and unlawful detention. "We have written to President Obasanjo recommending a number of measures that will be critical to the success of this initiative," Takirambudde said. "We are urging him to implement them as soon as possible to ensure that the grave abuses carried out by the Bakassi Boys are not repeated and that the breakdown of law and order which gave rise to their creation in the first place does not return." The recommendations include raising specific charges against the Bakassi Boys, ensuring that police conclude investigations into both the role of the Boys and those who ordered abuses and undertaking reforms within the force. The full text of the HRW letter