Complimentary Securities: How Effective in Face of Emerging Security Challenges and Way Forward (Part 3)

Gbolahan Samuel Moronfolu

MERITS OF PRIVATE GUARD
Some private security firms also have liaison with the police. It’s faster for a professional security guard to get the attention of a police officer to respond to a potential threat than it is for a meres-guard. This is because they are legally recognized as fellow protection officers.
These are all absent in the case of an ordinary gateman.

DEMERITS OF PRIVATE SECURITY GUARDS

Modern live video surveillance systems offer many of the same advantages—without the large retainer or paycheck.
Security guards expose employers to greater liability and insurance costs
Security guards passively monitor property, and are prone to boredom-related failure.

3.VIGILANTE

Vigilante is a form of the word vigilant, which means “keeping a watchful or close eye on events and people.” Sometimes a vigilante will make news for catching a criminal, and sometimes vigilante groups form to target crimes in a bad neighborhood.

Vigilante, member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority.

VIGILANTISM

Vigilantism is the act of enforcement, investigation or punishment of perceived offenses without legal authority.

The aims and objectives of the vigilante groups as defined in Article (4) of the Constitution include:

To assist the Police and law enforcement agencies to curb crime

To protect and preserve public property

Assist the Police in crowd control

Maintenance of peace at public functions where the need arises

Nigerian vigilante movements have an ambiguous relationship with the state. While they sometimes (in their state-sponsored guise) defend against insurgency, they are also actively part of insurgent processes.

GENERAL FEATURES OF VIGILANTE/VIGILANTISM

Most vigilante groups invoke notions of themselves as the protectors of a ‘moral community’.

Vigilantism forms part of a quest for modes of citizenship beyond that of the nation – religious or ethnic forms of belonging, for example.

Vigilante work is a resource for poor, unemployed youth, and a means by which the marginalized may insert them within the state apparatus.

Claims of extrajudicial executions and torture carried out by vigilante groups have led to attempts at prohibition by the federal government and ongoing contests with local authorities over the right to judge and punish crimes.

The institutionalization of shari’a implementation and state co-option of the Bakassi Boys were both introduced by state governors, part of a range of tactics by which governors have exploited the room for manoeuvre that now exists between state and federation.

How do trajectories of social mobilization shape contemporary vigilantism, and how do local cultural repertoires help us understand the imperative to protect and punish? Vigilantism is influenced by localized conceptions of the ethnic, religious or criminal ‘other’, and related discourses of risk, fear, protection and punishment.

Contemporary Nigerian vigilantism represents the articulation of claims to a set of rights based on the historical and spiritual legitimacy of young powerful men defending the community under local religious injunction and protection. Vigilantes protect not only their communities but also themselves, drawing on cultural repertoires of personal protection – of charms, shape-shifting and secrecy.

*Moronfolu is a seasoned security consultant with many years of security and policing experience. FELLOW, Fourth Estate Professional Society (FFPS), he has also partaken in peace keeping operations within and outside the country and has flair for general security education.