Spring Break
The reign of the Bakassi Boys
Oge Irene Nwofude
Issue date: 9/2/08 Section: Forum
The other day I saw on television the news of an armed robber apprehended by the police a few hours after the crime was committed. He was charged, sent to jail, and the police closed the case.
It got me thinking about my home country Nigeria, and how a wave of crime was stemmed in some cities a few years back by a group who took the law into their hands. They hunted down criminals, cutting off their limbs and burning them alive with a tire attached to their necks.
The Bakassi Boys are a group of youths known for their anti-crime vigilantism. They came into being in the late 1990s, and, in addition to being armed with machetes, guns and charms , they were officially supported and financed by the state government.
They operate in the Ibo/Igbo area of eastern Nigeria, in West Africa, and they are sometimes accused of illegal activity and human rights abuses, yet they still enjoy popular support from the government and most of the citizens. This is because the people are tired of the police taking bribes and not fighting the massive crime wave in the area.
The Boys, who probably took their name from the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula, in the Annang/Efik/Ibibio region of coastal southeastern Nigeria, emerged as a force when the crime rate of Abia state increased sharply. Right from the get-go, they enjoyed the support of Governor Orji Uzor Kalu. He recognized the effectiveness of the group in fighting the rise of crime in the state and its environs. However, as the crime rate went down in Aba, it rose in other unlucky eastern Igbo cities like Onitsha, Urualla, Okigwe and Owerri.
Hundreds of residents and traders were being killed by armed robbers in these cities. The police and other law enforcing agencies were regarded as ineffective. The Boys were invited to help stop crime and quickly became the sweethearts of the Igbo working class traders and merchants, who were being subjected to high levels of extortion.
The traders and merchants had their fortunes tied up in their trading goods; others would have their jewelry and phone snatched as they waited in traffic with the car windows open.
It got me thinking about my home country Nigeria, and how a wave of crime was stemmed in some cities a few years back by a group who took the law into their hands. They hunted down criminals, cutting off their limbs and burning them alive with a tire attached to their necks.
The Bakassi Boys are a group of youths known for their anti-crime vigilantism. They came into being in the late 1990s, and, in addition to being armed with machetes, guns and charms , they were officially supported and financed by the state government.
They operate in the Ibo/Igbo area of eastern Nigeria, in West Africa, and they are sometimes accused of illegal activity and human rights abuses, yet they still enjoy popular support from the government and most of the citizens. This is because the people are tired of the police taking bribes and not fighting the massive crime wave in the area.
The Boys, who probably took their name from the oil-rich Bakassi peninsula, in the Annang/Efik/Ibibio region of coastal southeastern Nigeria, emerged as a force when the crime rate of Abia state increased sharply. Right from the get-go, they enjoyed the support of Governor Orji Uzor Kalu. He recognized the effectiveness of the group in fighting the rise of crime in the state and its environs. However, as the crime rate went down in Aba, it rose in other unlucky eastern Igbo cities like Onitsha, Urualla, Okigwe and Owerri.
Hundreds of residents and traders were being killed by armed robbers in these cities. The police and other law enforcing agencies were regarded as ineffective. The Boys were invited to help stop crime and quickly became the sweethearts of the Igbo working class traders and merchants, who were being subjected to high levels of extortion.
The traders and merchants had their fortunes tied up in their trading goods; others would have their jewelry and phone snatched as they waited in traffic with the car windows open.
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Confused Student
posted 9/05/08 @ 8:51 AM CST
I'm confused; do you want a band of people to start killing common criminals by cutting of their limbs of burning them alive? Doing this is different than lethal injection, because we only kill people who have murdered others--not that i'm saying even that is right. (Continued…)
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