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From Tony Osauzo, Benin
Following complaints about activities of vigilante groups complementing police in tackling insecurity in Edo State, the state Police Command, yesterday, announced that it has began the process of streamlining the groups to regulate their activities.
Spokesman of the command, Kotongs Bello, a Superintendent of Police, disclosed this while speaking on a local radio station monitored in Benin City.
He said the police would soon begin training of the vigilante groups at the Police Training School which he said the state government was renovating to make the training conducive.
”Very soon, their training will commence, the governor is still working at the Ogida Police Training School and very soon maybe by next month, they will start their training. It is only the ones that have been confirmed, those ones that we are sure of their character that will be trained. That is what is in the pipeline now”, Kotongs said.
He further disclosed that the Assistant Inspector General of Police has directed that all vigilante members should be profiled by the Divisional Police Officers in their areas.
“We have directed their leaders to take them to the nearest Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for registration and profiling to ensure that those involved are not cultists and robbers who want to use the opportunity to bring their guns out and molest innocent people, we are not going to allow that.
“If any vigilante member commits any offence in a particular area, we will call the leader in that area to make enquiries, then such a person will be reported to the nearest DPO.
“We are calling on people with genuine intentions to join the vigilante groups and work with us, not those molesting people, not those carrying guns and hiding under the guise of vigilante to be robbing and molesting people, we don’t tolerate that. The essence of the vigilante is to work with the police and the police will supervise them”, the police spokesman added.
