Damian Ugwu
The Anambra State Vigilante Service (AVS), also known as the Bakassi Boys, was an armed vigilante movement that operated in Anambra State in the early 2000s.
It has its origins in the Onitsha Traders Association (OTA), a group formed in the late 1990s to combat the surge in armed robbery around Onitsha Market, one of the largest markets in West Africa. OTA was reportedly organised under the auspices of the governor of Anambra State and started its operations in September 1999.
OTA summarily executed over 1,500 people between September 1999 and July 2000. The group was also accused of torture, unlawful detention, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of alleged criminals. In view of social unrest over the poor performance of the OTA in dealing with armed robbery, another vigilante group, allegedly coming from Abia State, confronted the OTA.
The latter group would evolve into what is known as the Bakassi Boys of Anambra State. The Bakassi Boys are believed to use similar methods to those of the OTA in dealing with suspected criminals. At first, the governor refused to recognise the new group. A bill aimed at officially sanctioning the vigilante group was introduced to the Anambra State House of Assembly in August 2000. The bill became the Anambra State Vigilante Service (AVS) Act No. 9, 2000, after the governor signed it on 6 December 2000.
The Anambra State Vigilante Service was the first armed vigilante group officially recognised by a state government in Nigeria through a bill enacted by the state governor.
Although the AVS Act expressly states that the vigilante group should not be armed and must hand every suspect it arrests straight over to the police, since the creation of the group and well before it was declared official, the AVS, commonly known as the Bakassi Boys of Anambra State, have repeatedly been accused of carrying out extrajudicial executions of suspected criminals but also of assaulting people who are considered to be political opponents of the state government. The governor of Anambra State and officials responsible for the AVS denied the accusations.
In February 2001, the former leader of the Bakassi Boys in Anambra State, Gilbert Okoye, was arrested and questioned over the murder of Ezeodumegwu Okonkwo, chairperson of the All People’s Party (APP), the main opposition party in Anambra State. Members of the Bakassi Boys were alleged to have committed the crime. Okoye was detained by the police for three months and then released.
Hundreds of people in Anambra State are reported to have been extrajudicially executed by the Anambra Vigilante Service since the official recognition of the armed group by the authorities of Anambra State. There are also reports of scores of people being tortured or subjected to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, illegally detained, or “disappeared” by AVS. Those who openly oppose the existence of the vigilante group are often subjected to torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment as a way to intimidate them.
Odi Okaka Oquosa, an artist and a Pastor, was arrested and tortured by the Bakassi Boys in Onitsha on 19 October 2000. He had been paying regular visits to the group with the intention of talking to the Chairperson of the vigilante service to persuade him to put an end to the human rights violations allegedly being committed by the Bakassi Boys of Anambra State. He was severely beaten for three days and eventually released, thanks to the intervention of his relatives. He continued receiving threats from the Bakassi Boys to stop criticising the activities of the group. In October 2001, the Bakassi Boys burnt down his office and destroyed his belongings.
The Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) estimate the number of extrajudicial executions committed by the Bakassi Boys in Anambra State at over 2,000 between April 2000 and January 2002. The CLO also accounts for thousands of those who have been tortured or have received cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment by the “Bakassi Boys” of Anambra State in the same time frame.
According to the CLO, between 4 January 2002 and 15 March 2002 alone, an estimated 105 people were extrajudicially executed by the AVS in Onitsha and environs.
In early 2001, the Anambra Governor, Chinwoke Mbadinuju, imposed a Code of Conduct on the AVS requiring the group to hand over suspects to the police. In fact, the group ignored the code. The reported massive extrajudicial executions are often preceded by protracted periods of detention in Onitsha Main Market or other locations, and torture, perpetrated on some occasions in daylight and in public, frequently in particularly gruesome ways involving the decapitation, dismemberment and incineration of the victim.
According to witnesses, between 15 and 31 July 2000, over 30 people were killed and their bodies dismembered with machetes and set on fire in various locations in and around the city of Onitsha, apparently as a sign by the Bakassi Boys that they were officially commencing operations in the area.
On 4 November 2000, the Anambra Vigilante Service arrested Eddy Okeke, popularly called Eddy Nawgu, a traditional religious leader from Nawgu, in Anambra State. Eyewitnesses reported that he was beaten, kicked and whipped and then mutilated and decapitated in the presence of thousands of villagers on 9 November 2000. His body was doused with petrol and set ablaze. He had been found guilty by the vigilante group of aiding and abetting armed robbers.
On 28 May 2001, a group of the Bakassi Boys announced that they had executed 36 alleged robbers in Onitsha, Anambra State. The suspected robbers were detained several weeks earlier and held in various places in and outside the city, including “Chukin Mansion”, the headquarters of the vigilante group in Onitsha market, where hundreds of people are said to be unlawfully detained. Then they were driven in two buses to different locations where they were reportedly executed in public with machetes and iron bars.
On 9 July 2001, the Bakassi Boys drove Okwudili Ndiwe, alias Derico, a notorious alleged criminal, to a popular market in the centre of Onitsha, Anambra State, and severed his head in front of thousands of people. The police had earlier requested, without success, that the suspect be formally handed over to them. On 11 August 2001, at least 8 people were dismembered and then set ablaze in public at Lagos Motor Park, Sokoto Road, Upper-Iweka and other locations in Onitsha.
Between 25 and 30 November 2001, 20 people were killed with machetes and set alight by the Anambra Vigilante Service in Nnewi and Ihiala. The alleged extrajudicial executions took place in public places like Okija filling station or Nnewi Market Triangle.
On 5 February 2002, over 10 people were allegedly publicly killed with machetes at Onitsha Main Market and other locations in town.
Over 20 people were dismembered and set alight in public at Onitsha main market between 18 March and 16 April 2002.
Reports of extrajudicial executions attributed to members of the Anambra State Vigilante Service increased again in May 2002. Reportedly, 20 killings took place in Onitsha and environs on 29 May 2002. Eight more people were reportedly executed in public the following day. Previously, the Bakassi Boys of Anambra State between 24 and 26 May 2002 allegedly killed over 23 people.
On 10 April 2000, seven young men between the ages of 13 and were reported to have been killed in Inland Town, near Onitsha by a combined group of members of the federal police and Anambra State vigilantes; the bodies were later dumped in the River Niger.
On 24 September 2002, Mobile Police officers raided the premises of Anambra State Vigilante Service in and around Onitsha. Over 100 members of the vigilante group were arrested and detained. The police found five illegal detention centres in Ihala, Nnewi, Onitsha, Awka and Ekulubia.
To date, nobody has been brought to justice for the spate of extrajudicial executions, torture, inhuman and degrading treatment, enforced disappearances, and death in custody perpetrated by OTA and Bakassi Boys vigilantes. None of the victims or their families have been compensated. Anambra state has neither apologised nor rehabilitated thousands of victims of the Bakassi boys or the OTA vigilante groups.
Any armed vigilante groups conducting law enforcement functions in Nigeria who do not meet relevant human rights standards, including those on the use of force and firearms or are responsible for human rights violations and abuses, should be permanently disbanded, and the individuals responsible should be brought to justice.
