Nigerian Police Arrest Six Vigilante Members Employed By Crisis-Ridden Enugu State Community To Fight Rampaging TerroristsOperatives of the Nigeria Police Force have reportedly arrested six leaders of the Enugu State vigilant group otherwise known as Neighbourhood Watch in Akpawfu community, Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state.
Akpawfu has been the operational base of bandits, who had since forced the people of the community to flee with several persons, particularly community leaders and vigilante personnel's killed and dozens of houses burnt, while schools, churches and markets were shut for almost one year in the community until the constitution of the local vigilantes.
Expressing the concerns of the people of the community, the traditional ruler of Ajame Ameze Akpawfu Autonomous Community, Igwe Christopher Nnamani said he and the people of the community were shocked at the news of the arrest of the security men by the police even without any information as to offence committed by them.
The monarch narrated the incident thus:"We have been facing serious security challenges in the past two years, but the event of Thursday, June 22 made me to shed tears. This is because as we are recovering from the insecurity situation in Akpawfu following the introduction of vigilante operatives, the situation started calming down with government security being able to have access to our community once again, culminating in the army finally settling in Akpawfu.
"Yesterday being Thursday, June 22, my CSO informed me that the DPO invited them to a meeting at Agbani Area Command. I gave five of them the permission to go and also reminded them about the meeting on Friday with the police. "As I'm talking to you, I have not seen the Abuja officers and I have not seen our security operatives. I was at the state police command headquarters but they gave me the impression that the vigilante men had been whisked to Abuja. None of them agreed that they were still in Enugu.”