www.odogwublog.com brings you the report by Igbo Ekunie Initiative
The
attention of Igbo Ekunie Initiative, a coalition of professionals in Nigeria
and the Diaspora has been drawn to recent directive issued by Nigeria’s
Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Kpotum Idris to 36 States, and FCT
Police Command to confiscate arms and ammunition
including un-prohibited firearms or gaming/hunters guns legitimately used by
various State, rural and urban communities’ vigilantes in Nigeria.
We
hereby condemn and denounce the Inspector General’s directive in the strongest
possible terms and have been shocked that the Anambra State Police
Commissioner, Mr Garba Umar has in furtherance of the enforcement of the directive
in Anambra state, ordered members of the
public, individuals and groups such as vigilantes, neighbourhood watch, town
unions, hunters and night watchmen to
surrender and hand over their arms and ammunition to the police before the
expiration of 21 days.
We
maintain that the Inspector General’s directive as it relates to the South East
is absolutely worrisome and uncalled for especially when taken into perspective
that States like Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu are among the most peaceful areas in
the country has taken the issue of
security as cardinal policy of government that relies heavily on established
vigilante outfits which will now be affected by this very bizarre directive
from the Inspector General.
The
Inspector General of Police failed woefully to address his mind to the reality
that in some States like Anambra, Enugu, Imo and Abia, the local vigilante
groups have been accorded legal recognition as bonafide vigilante services
working in the communities for the State. These vigilante outfits assist or
collaborate with the Nigerian Police to maintain law and order in their
domains.
The
Anambra State House of assembly enacted the Anambra State Vigilante Group Law
2004, which established the local vigilante group in Anambra State. A similar scenario took place in Enugu State in
2006 with the enactment of Enugu State Neighbourhood Association and Watch
Group Law establishing the vigilante group in that State. We have similar
enactments in other states like Imo and Abia.
One
would have expected that the Inspector General of Police should devote his
energy and resources to addressing the reckless and cruel bloodletting all over
Nigeria by the rampaging violent and terrorist Fulani Herdsmen whose genocidal
crimes of huge proportions have so far baffled and overwhelmed the Inspector
General in particular and indeed the entire security forces in Nigeria. So far
thousands of innocent and defenceless Nigerians have been massacred and hacked
to death in the months of December 2017, January, February and March 2018 by
the duo of terrorist Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents particularly in
the Northeast and North-central. In these instances, the IGP Ibrahim Idris and
Nigeria Police Force have remained grossly incompetent and incapable; engaging
in shadow chasing and beating around the
bush. In some cases, the Inspector General actually sided with and spoke in
favour of the killers!
The
unwise and unilateral directive of Mr IGP
under reference clearly shows that the Force is totally aloof in matters of
influx, proliferation, possession and uses of firearms particularly those
classified by the Firearms Act of 2004 of the Federation of Nigeria as
“prohibited firearms”.
That
is to say that the Force does not have any credible database or interrogated
statistics or records on the number of licit and illicit small arms and light
weapons being brought into Nigeria by legitimate State and illegitimate non
State actors as well as types of such SALWs (Small Arms and Light Weapons);
destinations through which they are brought into the country; those responsible
for their legitimate and illegitimate procurement; quantities of same bought or
procured on daily, monthly and annual basis in Nigeria; those possessing them
and their percentage per population as well as how or purposes for which they
are used.
We
submit that the vigilantes bearing un-prohibited firearms or gaming (hunters)
guns such as pump action, double and single barrel
and Dane guns are not responsible for the State-aided mass slaughters ravaging Nigeria. Those under the above
category are dutifully and constitutionally supplementing the community
policing duties of the Nigeria Police Force. The gaming guns borne by such
vigilantes are inferior to themodern art
of violent crimes and internal armed conflicts.
That
is not to say that communal and urban vigilantes bearing arms will not be
roundly checkmated to tame them in the event of abuse, recklessness and
overzealousness particularly in the areas of sources of such hunters’ guns in
their possession; but such steps must be comprehensive and well planned; and
captured into national security policy.
We
insist that the Inspector General of Police ad indeed the entire Nigeria Police
Force must leave community and urban vigilantes alone and go after violent and
terrorist groups like Fulani Herdsmen and Boko Haram as well as others who are
in possession of illicit prohibited firearms such as AK-47 assault rifles and
their likes; machine guns, IEDs, rockets, mortars and anti-personnel and
anti-tank landmines, etc. Channels through which they are illicitly procured as
well as their sponsors including compromised politicians, couriers and
profiteers must also be tracked down, fished out and punished in accordance
with the law of the land.
Currently,
there is a high level of ethnic mistrust, distrust and suspicion amongst
Nigerians which has worsened under the current Buhari government. In that vein
the general consensus is that the directive from the Inspector General is to
disarm the good people of the South East who currently are not represented at
all in the leadership of all the security agencies of Nigeria, thus increasing
their vulnerability to thegenocidal
massacre by the rampaging terrorist Fulani Herdsmen.
Finally, we
warn that the enforcement of the unwise and myopic directive of the Inspector
General will further aggravate the already tense security situation all over
the country with the likely clampdown and skirmishes that will naturally ensue
when Nigerians expectedly ignore and resist the ill-fated directive.
Signed:
Maazi
Tochukwu Ezeoke
President
Igbo Ekunie Initiative
Email:
[email protected]
Lawrence
Nwobu
Secretary
Igbo Ekunie Initiative
Email:
[email protected]
Igbo Ekunie Initiative Warns IGP On His Order To Disarm Vigilante Services in South-East
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Monday, March 12, 2018
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