SUMMARY
Bakassi Boys was the name of a vigilante group active in south-eastern Nigeria. The group was founded in 1998 in Aba in Abia State by shoemakers and traders, angry about the lack of police protection against criminals. The group was based in one of the shoe production zones of the market known popularly as ‘Bakassi’, from which the armed militia took its name. Due to the group’s apparent effectiveness in combating crimes, local governors, in particular in the Abia and Anambra States, started hiring Bakassi Boys to improve government control. The governors reportedly preferred the Bakassi Boys over the federal police forces that suffered from poor motivation, underfunding, low and irregular pay, and lack of training and basic equipment. The local governors thereby also wanted to create their own security forces in an effort to enhance their power in relation to the federal government that controlled the police.
Thus, in mid-2000, the Abia and Anambra State governments established control over the Bakassi Boys and organised them as state vigilante groups to curb crimes. The Bakassi Boys were officially renamed “Abia State Vigilante Service” and “Anambra Vigilante Services” and were paid and equipped by the respective governments. Despite its brutal crack-down on suspected criminals the group enjoyed much support among the population that was plagued by crime. However, as the group was accused by a range of local and international human rights groups of severe human rights abuses and a clash between the regular police and the Bakassi Boys occurred, the federal government of Nigeria disbanded the vigilante groups in the Abia and Anambra States in August respectively September 2002.
Shortly after the group had been disbanded by the federal government, a law legalising the Bakassi Boys was passed in the Abia State parliament, but did not come into force as the local governor withheld his signature. Nevertheless activities by the Bakassi Boys were reported in the following years and according to media reports, the Abia and Anambra state governments continued to covertly condone the existence of the group. Traders in Abia State alleged a clandestine relationship between the Bakassi Boys and the local governor from late 2004. In January 2006, the governor of Abia State eventually legalised the Bakassi Boys with his signature on the 2002 bill. However, in June 2006, the federal government denounced the Bakassi Boys as a “terrorist organisation”. According to researchers, this spelled out the end of the group.
Members of the Bakassi Boys were primarily of Igbo ethnicity. The group was first under the leadership of Ezeji Oguikpe, the former chairman of the Bakassi shoe production zone in the market of Aba, Abia State. Oguikpe was, however, arrested in 1999 by the police and sentenced to death in 2006. In 2000, Bakassi Boys were placed under the control of a committee dominated by appointees of the State governors of the Abia and Anambra States. They thus became part of the government forces.
After being officially disbanded by the federal government, the identity of the Bakassi Boys leadership was difficult to establish, as the group went underground. In 2005, media reports noted that Kingsley Chimezie apparently was the leader of the Bakassi Boys in Abia State. This has, however, not been confirmed by local human rights organisations. It was reported that Chris Ngige, governor of Anambra State from 2003 to 2006, periodically maintained the Bakassi Boys for the protection of his personal security.
The Bakassi Boys have been involved in the one-sided category of UCDP organised violence.
