- Youth groups detain, extort ‘suspects’
- We won’t condone any form of impunity – Police
Residents of Warri in the Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State are now groaning as various youth groups, claiming to be part of the security infrastructure under the new community policing arrangement, have allegedly made life difficult for them.
The youths, it was learnt, had taken over the job of the police as they now exercise the powers to detain suspects, thereby using their position to extort unsuspecting members of the public in the state.
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that the youths in different parts of Warri have not only usurped the powers of the police as they now arrest ‘suspects,’ they also prosecute cases within their areas.
Some people now use these youths to witchhunt their perceived enemies or business competitors
This latest development, according to findings by our correspondent, is due to the alleged incompetence of some police divisions in some areas, resulting in residents resorting to taking laws into their hands.
Some of the youths, it was learnt, had even ordered residents not to take cases to any police station anymore, forcing all residents to rather bring all civil matters to their community townhall for ‘adjudication.’
Further investigation has revealed that youths in gang-controlled area of Warri metropolis, particularly in the Itsekiri and Urhobo speaking parts of the oil-rich city, now arrest and detain people at will.
Warri residents are now trapped between the activities of the notorious gangs and the police, who have become helpless in rescuing victims from the stranglehold of the youths.
Some residents of Warri, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to escape victimisation, said that they encountered serious threats in the hands of these notorious youths, who extort and unlawfully detain people either brought to them or picked over civil matters that ought to be handled by the police.
Sources disclosed that many police stations within the Warri metropolis had become incapacitated as a result of the development now posing serious threat to the policing of the metropolis.
A police source, who spoke to our correspondent, revealed that youths in Ugborikoko and Enerhen, Urhobo communities and Ugbuwangwe, an Itsekiri community, had become notorious for the “gang arrest and prosecution” of victims.
“Some police stations in Warri are not doing their jobs well because they have allowed hoodlums to take over their jobs. This is so because some DPOs do not want to carry arms. They do not want to go out to the field to do the dirty job. How can the people respect them? They cannot respect them because they are not afraid of them. They know that any time they commit crime, they are going to go scotfree,” the police source said.
A resident, Anthony Mene, said that the youths were doing community policing in a crude and notorious way and accusing the convention police of equally being notorious for indiscriminate arrest and false prosecution.
Another resident, Elohor Umukoro, said, “Some people now use these youths to witchhunt their perceived enemies or business competitors. Once anyone reports you to them,
