Neighbourhood Corps As Panacea For Increasing Crime Rate In Lagos -By Michael O. Ogunjobi

There is no gainsaying that security is the most fundamental need of human beings. A disturbed mind results in a restless, hapless and distraught personality. Succinctly, there are extant laws which provide for fundamental human rights and freedom from torture, cruel and degrading treatment in our polity. Issues of security and safety have been of concern to Lagosians and the security of lives and property is the resolve of the State government in view of increasing acts of lawlessness, social disorder such as the recent invasion of militants in some communities in Ikorodu and Igando areas of the State, armed robbery, and kidnapping exemplified by the recent kidnapping of the Oniba of Iba.

The presence of law enforcement agencies in the body polity of the State is a sine qua non for safety of lives and properties in a state. The spate of insecurity in Lagos State is worrisome indeed. Thus, advocates of community policing have opined that Lagos should have community and state police to check the challenges of insecurity bedeviling the mega city. Hence, it has become expedient to revisit the role of vigilante groups readily accessible to the populace in curbing crime in the commercial capital of Nigeria.

With increasing activities of hoodlums, the motley communities comprising Lagos, definitely need a commensurate increased vigilance from security agencies at this time of economic down-turn in the country. Increased surveillance and intelligence gathering is desireable since everything cannot be left for the police. The large population of Lagos State has made it quite difficult to curb the excesses of hoodlums and miscreants increasingly immigrating into the already over-populated state. Moreso, efforts to checkmate crime by the police has been mostly futile since often times, the great distrust and absence of empathy by the police creates a wide gap between them and their host communities. Public hostility and indifference are the most perplexing problems the police force in Lagos is facing today.

Of note, Section 4 of the Police Act provides: “The police shall be employed for the prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, the preservation of law and order, the protection of life and property and the due enforcement of all laws and regulation with which they are directly changed….”.

Generally, the police agencies consist of the Nigeria Police Force and specialized policing organizations with more limited jurisdiction e.g. Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps; National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Customs, Immigration, Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission – ICPC.  However, corruption has bestowed upon the Nigeria Police Force, already overburdened by order maintenance with prosecutorial responsibility, a poor image in the Nigerian society.

Over the years, local vigilantes help to patrol neighbourhoods under the supervision of the police in many communities in Lagos. Thus, the Lagos State House of Assembly recently passed A BILL FOR A LAW TO ESTABLISH THE LAGOS STATE NEIGHBOURHOOD SAFETY AGENCY for the regulation and control of the safety corps activities and for connected purposes. The functions of the Agency’s board is to take over all existing responsibilities of the neighbourhood watch and absorb all eligible Watchers into the corps. In addition, they will establish uniformed neighborhood safety corps in all Local Government/Local Council Development Areas in the State, formulate guidelines, regulations and policies for the day to day operations of the corps; and other local vigilante groups within the State amongst other functions.

The Bill came to the fore, in a bid to ensure that emerging highbrow crimes like killings by herdsmen, kidnapping, ritual killings and terrorism do not take root in Lagos State. The Bill seeks to repeal the Neighborhood Watch Law of 1996, enacted by the then military administration of Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (rtd). The new agency would integrate the existing personnel of the Neighbourhood Watch, that are competent, having good character and integrity. According to the Bill, the agency shall be a uniformed Neighbourhood Corps operating within all the local governments/local council development areas of the state. The private member Bill initiated by the Speaker of the House Rt.Hon. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa serves to curtail the upsurge in criminal activities across the State and also states that the board shall ensure cordial relationship with the Nigeria Police Force and other security agencies in the State.

Health, education energy, creating job opportunities are some of the major challenges recently highlighted by Bill Gates as the bane of development in Africa in the 14^th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture titled ‘Living Together’ delivered at the University of Pretoria as organized by the Nelson Mandela Foundation. We draw reference specifically from this lecture wherein the founder of Microsoft emphasized that individual, and collective responsibility is required to achieve the desired change in our motherland. In his words: ‘The innovations of tomorrow depends on the opportunities available to children today’. It sure takes ordinary people to bring about extraordinary innovations.

The efficacy of the philosophy and policies of any system of government in any given society depends on their faithful implementation. Hence, the vigilante system must not be turned to tools in the hands of influential community leaders to threaten and punish their adversaries. Also, a major caution note is that the security outfit to emerge should not compete with the Nigeria Police, but must complement their efforts in preventing and combating crime, since our laws do not recognize state policing.

It is important to state that anyone carrying any firearm must be licensed by the competent authority which according to the Firearms Act is the Commissioner of Police in the state. Illegal possession of firearms by any group whatever names it is called, either vigilante or non-vigilante contravenes Section 328 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2011 which provides: “Any person who:

(a) knowingly detains, buys, exchanges, or receives, from any member of the Armed Forces of Nigeria or any member of the Nigeria Police or from any deserter from either of such forces, or from any person acting for and on behalf of any of the above named persons ;

(b) solicits or entices any of the above named persons to sell, make away with, or dispose of;

(c) shall be employed by any of the above named persons, knowing him to belong to any of such forces or to be a deserter of any of the above forces, to sell, make away with, or dispose of; or

(d) has in his possession and cannot give a satisfactory account of his possession of any arms, ammunition, clothing, accoutrements,  medals or other appointments provided for the use of the Armed Forces of Nigeria or of the Nigeria Police; is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment of seven (7) years.”

It is expected that some of the challenges being faced by policing organizations associated with curbing crime, such as: victimization, information management as tool of planning, decision making, monitoring and evaluation will soon be a thing of the past with the introduction of the neighbourhood watch in Lagos. Also, complaints such as police delay in addressing emergency situations, and unnecessary detentions of members of the public at police stations, even where they are complainants or witnesses will cease to be excuse for failure of the members of the public to report crime.

The fulcrum of the foregoing is that crime prevention is not achieved through isolated retaliatory actions or pre-emptive violence of policing organizations but by prompt reporting of such incidents to the law enforcement agencies in our neighbourhood. It is in the light of the above that the law by the Lagos State House of Assembly   for the regulation and control of vigilante groups in communities to fight the scourge of crime and assist the police in their crime prevention initiatives and to enable it discharge its civic duties to the society is laudable.

Further, with the introduction of a well-structured neighbourhood watch security outfit, potential crimes will be detected early and prevented before maturing into full-blown offence. For instance, in some communities in Lagos, members of O’dua Peoples’ Congress assist to combat the activities of criminals thereby serving as a stop-gap measure, and forcing ‘Area boys’ (the social miscreants on Lagos streets) to turn a new leaf.

Moreso, the new system will afford the Watcher concerned, who is well attuned to his environs, to be able to spot quickly and easily any strange-face in the area. It will also engender close affinity, respect and trust between the neighbourhood watch and members of the community, thereby giving members of the community a sense of participation in crime prevention. This will go a long way to nip commission of crime in the bud.

Moreover, it also acts as a gag on potential offenders as the fear of being apprehended or discovered before the commission of the crime may deter them from execution of the offence. On a final note, individual citizens must appreciate that they are equally responsible for law enforcement.

*Ogunjobi Michael O. writes from Jireh & Greys Attorneys(the Chambers of Norrison Quakers SAN) in Lagos.