Rights group accuses Anambra vigilante of dabbling into civil natters, asks Governor Soludo to disband Nkpor vigilante

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Governor Soludo

A human rights group, Society for Justice and Good Governance (SJGG), has condemned the Anambra State Vigilant Group (AVG) for involving themselves in arrest and detention of persons who have civil matters.

The chairman of group Comrade Gilbert Okoli, who stated this in a statement made available to newsmen Sunday alleged that one Sunday Okafor from Nteje in Oyi Local Government Area of the State was arrested by the AVG since Saturday over land dispute.

The rights group said apart from providing information to Police on criminal matters, the vigilant group has no powers in any law to arrest and detain people on any issue especially civil cases.

He said even in criminal matters they can only arrest and hand over to Police to detain , investigate and prosecute not to detain.

They alleged that Okafor was arrested on Saturday by the AVG operatives from Nkpor and all efforts made for his release were frustrated, instead the members of AVG were still hunting for other members of Executives of the community to equally detain them.

The group called on Governor Chukwuma Soludo to call the leadership and operatives of AVG to order and resist the temptation from individuals using them to witch-hunt their opponents as is the case with Okafor.

They questioned the powers of the vigilant group to arrest and detain, alleging that because the operatives of the vigilant group have collected money from Okafor’s opponents in a land dispute they had to arrest and detain him to justify the huge money paid them.

The group said even the Nigerian Police have no right in our laws to dabble into any civil matter, saying that it is only the Court that can adjudicate on civil cases, saying that even Police with all their wide powers cannot detain a suspect beyond 24 hours except in cases with capital offences.

Wondering where members of AVG got their powers to detain a citizen for more than 48 hours in a civil case not even in a crinminal matter, the rights body called on the immediate release of Okafor by the AVG in Nkpor.

They called on the the Governor to launch investigation into the activities of AVG in the State especially the arrest of Okafor by AVG, Nkpor.