THE ROLES OF VIGILANTE GROUP IN SAFETY OF THE SOCIETY
A PAPER PRESENTED:
BY
NASIR ABDULLAHI NASIR
HARUNA ABDUL DORAYI
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL AND HEALTH EDUCATION
AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
(FCE KANO CAMPUS)
INTRODUCTION
Vigilante groups as security outfits are mostly composed of volunteers, operating under the mandate of communal consensus to fight crime. As the waning capacity of the police could not curtail the rising trend of urban violence and crime, communal policing or vigilante were created to protect the neighbourhoods.
Vigilante groups as security outfits are mostly composed of volunteers, operating under the mandate of communal consensus to fight crime. As the waning capacity of the police could not curtail the rising trend of urban violence and crime, communal policing or vigilante were created to protect the neighbourhoods.
Peace, safety and security are both
necessary and indispensable requirements for development and the attainment of
good quality of life for any human society. They provide the requisite enabling
environment for citizens to live and work towards social, economic and political
development of the society. By the same token, their absence stifles the human
capacity to develop and heavily compromises the dignity and quality of life of
both individuals and society. Furthermore, insecurity impacts negatively on all
citizens through losses of property, life and limb, or through loss of
confidence from fear of violence. It is against this backdrop that the delivery
of safety and security is considered a justifiable public good and the very essence
of the state. Human safety and security are indeed human rights having a value
of their own and serving an instrumental function in the construction of human
contentment and prosperity.
A
number of factors may have occasioned the emergence of vigilante groups in
Nigeria. The inability of the police to protect the lives and properties of
members of the society has given rise to community effort at ensuring their own
security. corruption, brutality,
oppressive and repressive postures, high level of extortion, high cost of
assessment to police services, poverty, non-personal relationships, as some of
the factors that made the people lose faith in the police and their consequent
preference for informal policing structures.
The roles
playing by vigilante group to ensure safety to the society
a.
To reduce criminal acts
b.
To protect lives and properties
c.
To assist in accident or any other occurrence of natural
disasters
d.
To arrest and hand over suspected criminals to the police.
e.
To provide intelligent information to the police.
f.
To protect and preserve public
property;
- Assist the Police in crowd control and
maintenance of peace at public functions where the need arises;
- With the clearance of the police, assist
public agencies in the protection of their establishment plants and
equipment;
- To give information to the police and other
security agencies of criminals or wanted persons residing in the ward or
Local Government;
- To locate the permanent or temporary residencies
of receivers of stolen properties and 419 practitioners for the purposes
of enabling the police to arrest or monitor their activities;
- To make positive and useful contributions to
the advancement, progress and well-being of the community by mobilising
and assisting in communal development efforts; and
Vigilante groups also emphasised
that prospective members should be duly employed and certified/identified by
the ward heads before they could be registered as vigilante members. This was
to avoid recruiting criminals into their fold and to prevent corrupt practices
such as extortion since vigilante groups are largely voluntary without payment
of salary by the government.
Conclusion
According Abraham Maslow
hierarchy of need stated that safety need is the second most important need for
human life after physiological need.
Vigilante groups consider drug
addiction and theft as a threat to public safety. They arrest criminals and
assist in their rehabilitation. Vigilante groups work twenty-four hours a day
but they perform most of their activities at night. Arrested suspects are
handed over to the police for further interrogation and prosecution. In several
cases, communities trust vigilante more than police because of the effective,
reliable and prompt ways they tackle criminal issues Some parents enlist
vigilante groups to monitor the activities of their children whether they were
attending Schools or not.
References
Vigilante
Group Official Website (2018) mission
AND Misiion of The Vigilante Group. Retrieved at http://vigilantegroupnig.com/vision-mission/
on 19th July, 2018, 12:00pmTHET
