The neighbourhood watch became the integral instrument in Community

Policing since 2012. It began as a process initiated by the Plateau State Police
Relations Committee (PRC),1 Comprising of both Muslims and Christians, and
unlike the Hunters Association, it is open to both men and women. The
uniqueness of the neighbourhood watch’ when compared to other informal
security instruments is its dual support system of having the full backing of
the Nigeria Police Force, while it still maintains strong ties, has the financial
and social support of traditional authority. As described by one of its founders
Jonah Kumret;
…it (the neighbourhood watch) became a child of necessity because
of the ‘no-go areas’ problem in Jos…By ‘no go areas’ we mean that
(sic) because of the fact that Jos became so divided, it was difficult
for Muslims to go into Christian areas and also the other way round.
However, we discovered that criminal elements in both our
communities were united enough to make their hideouts available to
each other irrespective of tribe or religion.” 2

Kumret further explains that

…it became clear within our different communities that if we only permitted
the fluidity of criminals within our communities, in which stealing and other
crimes will continue unabated, we will be the losers. So, on a particular Sallah3
day celebration in 2012, the PCRC requested some known and reasonable
young Christians to guard mosques, and it went well. In that same year, the
PCRC also made a request for Muslims youths to provide security support to
churches, and whole event went well. It was from this initiative, that the idea
to have what we called ‘neighbourhood access’ teams within our various
communities. With these groups, criminals from the various parts of Jos, who
fled to others were sought after and either repatriated to their communities or
sent to the police. With the success of this initiative, the PCRC, in
collaboration with the then Commissioner of Police of Plateau State Mr. Chris

1
Actually, called the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC) has been one the longest lasting
community policing policies of the Nigerian Police Force. Established in 1984 by the Leadership of Nigeria
Police Force under Etim Iyang the then Inspector General of Police, it was introduced to foster a new form of
partnership between the Nigerian Police and their immediate communities in order to enhance policing through
close collaboration with community members.
2
Mang, H. G. (2023, March 29). Interview with Jonah Kumret, Vice Chairman of the Police Community
Relations Committee (PCRC), Plateau State Police Command. personal.

3
Sallah or Sallat is one of a number of Muslim celebrations which is common in Nigeria and most countries
with large Muslim populations.
Olakpe, opened up the process of recruitment of youths from different
communities as part of the ‘neigbourhood watch. 4

The present initiative which has extended to almost all communities in the
urban areas of Jos and Bukuru, bases its efficiency on the following:
1. Every community that initiates a neighbourhood watch will be required
to first set up a consultative committee comprising of:
i. the ward or community head
ii. a religious leader (or leaders) within the community
iii. Members of commercial entities, markets, schools, industries etc.
iv. Youth and women leaders.
2. The committee is to meet to discuss the following:
i. Plans for office accommodation for the neighbourhood watch
team.
ii. A community-based action plan, which comprises of:
The installation of gates within access points in the community
iii. Recruitment of known and disciplined young people from within
the community as neighbourhood watch personnel on a volunteer
basis.
3. The Committee will then write an application to the Divisional Police
Officer (DPO)5 through the District Head in which the the community is
located, requesting police permission and assistance to set up a
neighbourhood watch.
4. If and when approved, the committee then provides a list of potential
personnel who will be vetted by the Divisional Police.
5. Successful candidates then receive a two week training under the
auspices of the Nigeria Police Force, are provided gear, which consists
of uniforms and an ID card, paid for by their communities. 6

The Neighbourhood Watch volunteers work from dusk to dawn in shifts within their
communities. In most cases they comprise of a minimum of 10 and a maximum of
20 within the community. All members are required to give a certain number of
hours a week. The neighbourhood watch teams constitute of groups which mount
road block on local community inlet roads which run through the community.

4
Interview with Jonah Kumret…
5
The Divisional Police Officer heads all police units within a local government area, he/she answers to the State
Commissioner of Police.
6
Plateau State PCRC (2021). Police Community Relations Committee Handbook on Neighbourhood Watch, pp.
12-13.
Motorists driving in are checked to ensure they don’t carry either dangerous
weapons or stolen items.
These neighbourhood watch volunteers are not allowed to possess firearms in any
way. Rather most of them are allowed to use jack knives, sticks and horsewhips.
However, there are a few of these neighbourhood watch members who have been
able to circumvent the firearms inhibition. These are mainly those located in the
outskirts of the urban areas, where a lot of violent crimes such as armed robbery
and kidnappings are common. In the cases of some members of these
neighbourhood watches, the traditional rulers, starting from the ward heads up to
the district heads, write in plea for a few trusted members of the group to be
granted a ‘hunters’ status. By this status, these members of neighbourhood watches
become eligible to possess and handle firearms within their communities.
In quite a number of cases, communities build a combination of the neighbourhood
watch, hunters’ association, and other groups that are encouraged to work under
the police under the supervision of the PCRC.
Neighbourhood watch volunteers have the right to implement a citizen’s arrest,
however, they are required to make such arrests only if:
1. An arrest can only be affected with the knowledge of the ward or community
head.
2. The offender can only be arrested and temporarily detained when caught
within the confines of the designated community.
3. Arrests, when made should be temporary until the arrival of a police officer,
or other officer of the law, who will make the formal arrest.
4. The arrest can only be made by the neighbourhood watch if it is clearly seen
that the offender does not to possess any harmful weapon. If such an
offender does, the police should be notified immediately to effect such an
arrest.
5. Possession or the keeping of firearms within the confines of the
neighbourhood watch premises is strongly disallowed.7

7
Plateau State PCRC (2021). Police Community Relations Committee…p. 22.
Organised vigilante groups, unlike neighbourhood watches are not new to northern
Nigeria, however within the Plateau area, they gained prominence mainly among the
Hausa communities within the urban areas of Jos and Bukuru. For the indigenous
communities, vigilantism was hardly an organised system of security, rather, people
within communities, mobilised themselves when the need arose to defend
themselves.
Vigilantes and active vigilantism gained prominence in the commercial areas of the
north of Nigeria such as Kano with those tagged as yan banga, and in the south-east
of Nigeria with the Ndinche. All these groups comprised of men who served as
community custodians, they were mainly volunteers in villages who sought out
criminal elements and brought them before the community heads. In most cases
where the crimes were misdemeanours, these vigilantes had been known to take the
laws into their hands, however in most cases of grave crimes, the perpetuators were
taken either to the traditional rulers or to the police authorities.
Thus Oyosoro argues that “…instead of looking at vigilante groups as a response to
a supposed increase of crime or of a supposed decline of police force, we should
consider them - initially at least - as a first attempt of introducing some forms of
community policing.”8
It is quite difficult to provide a definite description of vigilante groups, although as a
convenience the Vigilante Group of Nigeria has availed itself as a more cooperate
institution within the ranks. However, looking at the outlining of different types of
vigilantes made by Alemika and Chukwuma, one can make a little sense of where
those within Plateau and the Jos area specifically, could fit.
i. Neighbourhood or community: Neighbourhood watch and community
vigilante groups organized by community associations.
ii. Ethnic: Vigilante groups organized along ethnic lines to defend ethnic
interest.
iii. Religious: Vigilantes with faith roots
iv. State sponsored: Groups that operate with the support of local
governments.9
Lar brings us closer home in his study where he describes Vigilante Group of Nigeria
(VGN) in Plateau state as a group that has primarily emerged;
8
Oyosoro, F. I. (2021). Alternative security sources in Nigeria: The ambiguity of vigilante groups. Journal of
the Beninese Association for Strategic and Security Studies, 1(3). https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/c6ygk
9
Alemika, E., & Chukwuma, I. C. (2004). The Poor and Informal Policing in Nigeria:..pp. 12-13.
 …as a social grouping because of their shared experience, where we
establish that several VGN members have a common background. There
is a commonality that emerges because of shared attributes, these
common attributes were made clear when we analysed the profiles of a
considerable number of vigilante members as a collective. Before joining
the VGN these are young men who fall into a category that Pratten has
described as having experienced the “rugged life.” This brings in a second
dimension, where we establish how vigilante membership is constituted
by societal rejects who find redemption in being members of the VGN.
The VGN provides an ostensible entry point to society, the recognition as
respected and recognised members of the community. Here we refer to
notions of the political economy of vigilantism as a form of socialisation. I
presented individual cases where traditional local leaders also double as
chairmen of local government vigilante groups. Vigilantism is another
means of earning a livelihood, membership bestows status and respect,
and it provides protection.10

Lar’s point provides a succinct description of the vigilante issue in Jos and its
environs. The VGN, which gained prominence in November 2021 when the Nigerian
House Representatives passed the bill to establish the Vigilante Group of Nigeria
with the powers to provide community policing, maintenance of law and order, as
well as community service for Nigerians. The Nigerian Senate was to later passed it
into law January 2023.11 The VGN and vigilantism as a whole in a larger part of
Plateau State is relatively new as earlier pointed out. While popular in the Hausa
areas, its popularity mainly grew in other areas of Jos owed to the need for
increased security which arose due to the continuous violent conflicts and increases
in crime.
Unlike the Hunters Associations and the Neighbourhood Watches, which are
commonly laced with the community-based identity (mainly either ethnic or
religious) leanings, as the conflict within the state has led communities to form in;
the VGN within the Jos area is highly cosmopolitan. This, as lar has described has
arisen due to the ease with which access to the informal security group avails. Unlike
with the first two, the vigilante itself does its own registration and its own due
process checks of each individual applicant. Furthermore, it sees itself more as a

10
Lar, J. T. (2015). Vigilantism, state, and society in Plateau State, Nigeria: A history of plural policing; (1950
to the present) (thesis). BIGSAS at Bayreuth University, Bayreuth, p. 270.
11
Sunday, O. (2023, January 19). Vigilante Group hails National Assembly for passage of bill. The Guardian
Nigeria . Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://guardian.ng/news/vigilante-group-hails-national-assembly-for-
passage-of-bill/.
group of people in reform and provides its members a second chance. This has
made the VGN in Jos and its environs an attractive informal security instrument for
quite a number of young people who seek to make amends within their
communities.
This appeal towards vigilantism and the VGN and the ease with which membership
could be obtained, is what Lar points out as cause for the VGN’s appeal by many
irrespective of creed or ethnic identity. 12 By this, the VGN presents itself within Jos
and its environs as the most accessible of the informal security instruments.
Still though, even if it has provided an agency by which known criminals and felons
have found redemption quite a lot of members of community hold some their
members in abeyance. Lar’s studies indicate that apart from the fact that traditional
rulers took up statuses as chairmen of local government vigilante groups, the
position also afforded them the opportunity to recruit known lawbreakers and
delinquents into the group, in order to place them within a regimented system which
checked them and put them in line due to its demands. Most of these VGN members
are encouraged to operate in areas outside the confines of community, mainly on
feeder roads or far off rural communities where they could be prone to greater
harm, but will receive a hero’s welcome if they succeed in warding off criminals and
militias. Due to this sense of sending them into danger, some community leaders
encourage and support some members of the VGN to like the neighbourhood watch
members, also subscribe to joining the hunter’s association, which will afford them
access to weapons. This though presents a dicey situation, and in many cases, the
guns acquired are the property of the community and as such are retrieved from
them after patrols and kept in the custody of either the police or the traditional ruler.
Thus, the VGN members find themselves in the middle of the informal security
spectrum in which although accepted, not like the members of the neighbourhood
watch, and on the other side, they are not heroes like the hunter’s.

12
Lar, J. T. (2015). Vigilantism, state, and society in Plateau State…p.270.