Crackdown on Nigerian vigilantes

Bakassi Boys say they work within the law

By Dan Isaacs BBC, Lagos

Nigerian police have arrested more than 30 people following a raid on premises of one of the most notorious vigilante organisations operating in the country.

The police say they also closed down what they described as torture centres belonging to the group known as the Bakassi Boys.

A police spokesman said that the group, based in the south-eastern state of Abia, have been carrying out illegal arrests, detention and torture of suspected criminals.

The police action follows growing concern that such vigilante organisations may be used as hired thugs by local politicians in the forthcoming election period.

Crime

Across Nigeria vigilante groups, such as the Bakassi Boys, have grown up in response to rising levels of violent crime.

Police are under-paid and poorly equiped

Their methods are often brutal but they do get results and incidents of armed crime have dramatically fallen in many towns.

Despite their brutal methods, these well-armed vigilante groups have been largely welcomed by the local population.

But their operations have severely embarrassed the Nigerian police force, who have been widely perceived as both corrupt and inefficient.

Get tough

And so, in recent weeks, the police have launched a new get tough policy, not only on the criminals, but also apparently on the vigilante crime fighters themselves.

The Bakassi Boys provide protection where the police cannot

Following this latest swoop on the operations of the Bakassi Boys in Abia state, the police say they have released more than 40 people being held in detention and recovered a large store of weapons, including guns, knives and machetes.

Amid genuine fears that the existence of similar groups may lead to growing violence during the forthcoming election period, the country's inspector general of police, Tafa Balogun, has warned that peace and tranquillity of Nigeria will be maintained, at all costs, by the police.

Not a particularly subtle form of policing but one that they hope will be effective as Nigeria enters, what many observers believe, a very volatile few months culminating in presidential elections early next year.