The Police community unit of the Nigerian Police will be in charge of vigilante activities in the country. The police will help in screening recruits into approved vigilante groups to avoid enlisting wrong personnel into the new set up.
The Commissioner of Police in charge of Community Policing CP Etop John James said his department will be in charge of vigilante operations in the country which he described as informal policing –civil partners of police. Among other things, the police will ensure that people of proven integrity will be enlisted into the groups after careful screening. “The police will help in screening the people presented by the civil partners of the force. We will tell them the dos and don’ts, because you can’t just walk out and say you are doing vigilante”, he said.
He made this disclosure during the ‘Police Community Vigilante Summit’ held in Abuja with the theme: “Strategies for Safer Community and National Security” put together by Absolute Security and Consultancy Services Limited in collaboration with Nigerian Police, Police Community Unit.
CP James said that the partnership just started as his departed was created by the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba recently. The CP noted that the essence of partnering with vigilante groups is because they are nearer to the people, who the police will not ordinarily be able to reach in security matters.
The CP revealed that the rank and file of the force has stopped referring to people as “Bloody Civilians”. “The word bloody civilian has stopped to be as the person you call bloody civilian will be in charge of fixing your remunerations”, he added.
All the 36 States in Nigeria and Abuja were represented by various vigilante groups that are affiliated to Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGL) whose National Commander is Alh. Ali Sokoto.
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