The Nigeria Police Force is at a loss about the
operations of a new gang in Lagos State known as
Badoo. In fact, the residents of Ikorodu — where Badoo
holds sway — accuse the police of doing nothing.

In the last 12 months, 26 residents of Lagos State
have been killed by this gang. A family of five were
among the victims of last week’s attack—David Ikehi,
his wife and son were killed with a grinding stone,
while his other children sustained injuries.

This gang is known for using bricks and mortars in
smashing the skulls of their victims. And are known to
target homes in secluded areas where the screams of
victims cannot be heard. When they attack, they take
the body parts of victims and rape female victims.

Local residents seem to know what the police doesn’t
know: they claim that members of Badoo are not
thieves but ritualists. They also claim that some
traditional rulers were behind this gang, which started
operation in July 2016. Rumours in Ikorodo have it
that anytime suspected members of this gang are
arrested, powerful individuals ensured that they were
released.

Consequently, residents of Ikorodu have resorted to
jungle justice: some suspected members of the gang
werekilled by mobs a couple of days ago.

This is a failure of community policing.

Ideally, community policing offers a medium for police
and communities to work together and solve problems
in communities. When local vigilante groups—who are
well trained — work with police, communities are better
protected.

But the level of distrust between communities and
police hampers the smooth operation of community
policing. Reports have it that some suspected
members of Badoo were killed after residents refused
to hand over the suspects to police.

With the level of distrust between police and
communities, groups such as Badoo could strive.

One reason for this is that affected communities have
embraced relatively untrained vigilante groups for help.

This could have grave consequences. For example,
the quality of training received by members of local
vigilante groups are not regulated, so not many can
vouch for the quality of trainings they receive. Do
members of local vigilante groups have training in
psychology? How do they identify members of Badoo?
An uncoordinated strategy for identifying members of
Badoo can only lead to anarchy when innocent
citizens are mistakenly killed.

This brings to mind the level of trainings members of
vigilante groups might have in arms handling.

Training is not the only issue here. In most cases,
members of vigilante groups are known in the
community, but this doesn’t pass for proper security
checks on members. It will be a tragedy for persons
with criminal networks to be engaged in securing a
community.

Most importantly, for community policing to work,
there has to be a clear rule for engagement between
police and vigilante groups. In this regard, the police
should do all it can to gain the trust of communities. It
will not be out of place for the police to engage in the
training and recruitment of members of vigilantes,
since Nigeria is still under policed.

Solution to gang crimes can only come from
collaboration between police and community.

Fundamentally, gangs are a local problem and there is
no one-size-fits-all solution to gang crimes. So
solutions should be tailored to fit local contexts.This is
where communities come in.

TheCable