Banditry: We won’t accept repentant criminals as vigilantes – Police

The Commissioner of Police in Kaduna State, CP Umar Muri, has said the police command in the state will not accept repentant criminals as members of vigilante groups in the State.

According to the CP, such repentant criminal elements usually compromise, adding that they reveal secret information to criminals.

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Muri made the comment when he joined other security heads on a confidence-building visit to the Palace of Emir of Zazzau over rising insecurity in the emirate.

He told the Emir to form vigilantes within the emirate but excluding repentant criminals.

The Police Commissioner also said the only people they will agree to work with as vigilantes would be people with the fear of God.

“I want to appeal to the emir of Zazzau that the security agencies are not many and we want the emir of Zazzau to give us the best so that we will be able to form vigilante not repentant criminals,” he said.

According to him, when repentant criminals are given as vigilantes, instead of assisting the police to solve the problem, they may end up compromising.

The CP said the command prefered to work with people with the fear of God as vigilantes to tackle the security challenges in Zaria and the state at large.

He assured the people of the state of their commitment to securing the lives and property of the residents as he urged the people to feel free to provide information to security agencies.

Similarly, the State Director, Department of Security Service, Idris Kwayah, told the emir that most districts heads and village heads were afraid of providing information to security agencies about the bandits’ movement in their communities.

He further urged the emir to convince them to feel free to support his agency by alerting them on the movement of the bandits before they strike, adding that doing so will allow the security to take measures to repel the attacks.