Vigilante justice

ONITSHA, Nigeria -- Men in bandanas and dark sunglasses lean from a speeding van in this southeastern Nigerian city, blasting sawed-off shotguns in the air. Traders pushing loaded carts scurry. Mothers carrying babies dart out of the way.

"We have received information of an attack by armed robbers," says Austin Ugo as he fires his shotgun. His cohorts smash machetes against slow-moving cars. "God has sent us to this job to dispense justice."

The 28-year-old Ugo and his men are members of the Bakassi Boys, a vigilante group celebrated as heroes in Onitsha's once-crime ridden market but increasingly scorned by human rights groups -- and privately by some residents and police -- who say they are ruthless killers.

The movement was forged four years ago by a core group of former shoe salesmen and car parts dealers who closed their shops to wage war on the armed bandits plaguing Nigeria's southeast.

Two years later they came to Onitsha, home to one of West Africa's largest street markets, after Nigeria's underfunded and often inept and corrupt police proved powerless to stop robbers.

Amnesty International says the Bakassi Boys have summarily executed more than 1,000 people. And Human Rights Watch says the group has tortured hundreds to force confessions.

Nigeria's police began cracking down on the Bakassi Boys on Wednesday, raiding five bases in southeastern Abia state -- arresting 33 vigilantes, freeing 46 illegally held prisoners, and seizing stockpiles of guns and ammunition. The raids came after a shootout with police prompted by the Bakassi Boys' refusal to release their prisoners.

Anambra Gov. Chinwoke Mbadinuju, who pays the vigilantes' salaries and supplies them with weapons and vehicles emblazoned with "Anambra Vigilante Service," denies knowing of killings or abuses.

President Olusegun Obasanjo has expressed fears the groups could be transformed into private armies during next year's governors' elections, since governors are the vigilantes' main patrons. Some opposition lawmakers say they have been assaulted and received threats from Boys.

Biblical authority

Although they embrace rituals and charms, the Bakassi Boys say they are devout Christians. Their authority is in the Bible, commander Chinaenye Ihenko said.

Sitting behind a desk cluttered with three miniature coffins and what appears to be a leather hangman's hood, the 32-year-old Ihenko denies his men have ever killed anyone.

Reports to the contrary are orchestrated by the governor's enemies, he says.

But a Bakassi Boy who calls himself "Schwarzenegger" contradicts Ihenko while telling how the group deals with suspected armed robbers.

"We kill them," he said.

Only recently have police acknowledged abuses by the Bakassi Boys, calling them "barbaric" and murderers.

"They are killing people, innocent people," said Abia police commissioner Olusegun Efuntayo.

Open criticism

Chuka Obele-Chuka, an Onitsha civil rights lawyer, is one of the few to openly criticize the Bakassi Boys. He has vowed to fight Mbadinuju in court for giving them a license to kill.

Like the Bakassi Boys, Obele-Chuka says he is inspired by the Old Testament. He hangs a slingshot in his office as a reminder of David's unlikely victory over Goliath.

"There is no doubt these Bakassi Boys kill criminals," Obele-Chuka conceded. "The crime rate has gone down. Our quarrel is with their methods."

Joyce Okeke, who lives in Onitsha, knows their methods all too well.

The last time she saw her husband, Eddy Okeke, a faith healer locked in a dispute with village chiefs, was in November 2000. The Bakassi Boys dragged him away bloodied, wearing only his underwear.

After four days, she heard the Bakassi Boys had put him to death.

"They have killed so many innocent souls," Okeke said. "How can you capture a human being, slaughter him like an animal in the street and set him ablaze?"