THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE USE OF VIGILANTE GROUPS ON SECURITY MANAGEMENT. ( A CASE STUDY OF IHIAGWA, AUTHONOMOUS COMMUNITY, IMO STATE)

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

A layman definition of security is the protection of life and property of a person. The word security emanated from the Greek word se-cura, meaning “to be in a state of no fear”. The concept of security has undergone a transition conceptualization to a non-traditional meaning. Traditionally, security management was the unilateral function of the state especially if we consider the intellectual view(s) of some political theorist like Thomas Hobbes (1962) who argued that the essence of a state is to guarantee the security of lives and property and ensure law and order through its political sovereignty and monopoly of violence, which the state applies to engender strict conformity and compliance to state laws by the people for effective security management.

But in contemporary times, the definition of security goes beyond the traditional military ways of protecting the state against internal and external aggression. The fact is that since the end of the cold war, security management has assumed a new dimension.

External threat of security resulting from international hostilities and aggression that characterized the cold war era, has been replaced with non traditional security, threat like information warfare, drug trafficking, nuclear pollutions, kidnapping, insurgency, corruption, human trafficking, terrorism and so forth.

Now the government has realized that they can no longer monopolize the business of security in the local domain as well as the world at large. Here in Nigeria, the agencies in charge of security management which comprises of the police, military, civil defence and so forth has failed woefully due to corruption, insufficient numbers of personnel and so on. As a result of this failure we have recognized that traditional policing in the form of vigilantism is necessary and beneficial to the effective management of security. With the government recognizing the vigilante groups and empowering them to help in crime management in their various communities, crime will not only be prevented, but there will be peace and security. Since the members of the various vigilante groups are members of the community who are acquainted with the people, understand the culture of the people, grew up knowing the norms of their communities, and also the terrain, that is they know the nook and crannies of their communities, so that it will be difficult for an offender to hide. With the vigilante groups in charge, security will be guaranteed at the community levels while the police will have the time to do the wider work of National policing.

• STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

With the increase in population in Ihiagwa occasioned by the presence of two Federal Institutions: Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO) and Federal Polytechnic Nekede Owerri in nearby communities, the issue of security has become a great challenge. There is a gradual rise in the incidence of armed robbery, house breaking, kidnapping, rape, cultism, theft, fraud, bag snatching and so forth. As a result of these, residents of the community now live in fear as it is uncertain who will be the next victim. It is widely acknowledged that the police alone cannot effectively police every section of the country in view of the limited number of their personnel, coupled with the fact that they are poorly equipped.

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