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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | When the Bakassi Boys Came: Eastern Nigeria Confronts Vigilantism |
Author: | Baker, Bruce |
Year: | 2002 |
Periodical: | Journal of Contemporary African Studies |
Volume: | 20 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | July |
Pages: | 223-244 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | organized crime police national security Law, Human Rights and Violence Politics and Government Ethnic and Race Relations Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
External links: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0258900022000005188 http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=00MA7TCRLGLPW85DXG0D |
Abstract: | The Anambra Vigilante Service (AVS), which incorporated the Bakassi Boys from the neighbouring state of Abia, has had a dramatic impact on the crime rate. From the time of its inauguration in July 2000 until January 2001, there were practically no armed robberies anywhere in Anambra state and Anambra claims to have the lowest robbery rates in Nigeria. However, the formation of the Bakassi Boys, as they are popularly called, proved to be more than a popular anticrime measure. It triggered a debate on policing and brought to the fore a power struggle between the federal and state levels of government and between the Nigeria Police and those in the local community concerned with security. Moreover, the activities of such State vigilante services give cause for concern in that they lead to diminishing accountability, marginalization of the Nigeria Police, escalation of the use of violence, inequality of treatment, the emergence of ethnic militias and a questioning of the rule of law. Elements of anomie theory, the victimized actor model, and social control theory may contribute towards a theoretical explanation of the origins of this quasi-official form of vigilantism. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |