Presidential Research & Communications Unit

Militia groups are spread across parts of Nigeria, but the most organized are the O’odua People’s Congress (OPC) in the south-west, the Bakassi Boys and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) in the southeast, the Egbesu Boys in the oil-producing Niger-Delta region, the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People in the south, and a plethora of Islamic vigilantes called Hisbah in Sharia-practising northern states.

Other less organised but nonetheless dangerous groups also exist. For instance, the yandaba group in the northwest and the ECOMOG Boys in the northeast have been involved in religious and political clashes.

The violent activities of these militia groups, which draw their membership from the horde of unemployed youths in the country, have caused many people to be concerned about their utilization during the next general election.

The O’odua People’s Congress (OPC)

The OPC professes to work toward the unity, progress, protection, and autonomy of all descendants of Oduduwa. Deriving its name from Oduduwa, the folk progenitor of the Yoruba, this group is self-styled the patron saint of the Yoruba people, one of Nigeria’s largest ethnic groups.

Among the founding fathers of the OPC is Dr Frederick Fasehun, a medical doctor. The group was formed in August 1994 in the wake of the crises that greeted the cancellation of the 12 June 1993 presidential election, which the late Chief MKO Abiola, a Yoruba man, was believed to have won. While a crop of middle-class intellectuals heads the group, the bulk of its membership is illiterate and semiliterate.

Although the OPC is believed to have many high-profile patrons, including state governors who use them to settle political scores, the group is largely sustained by contributions from bus drivers and residents who solicit protection from thieves.

OPC claims to have more than five million members in the southwest states of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti as well as Kwara and Kogi in central Nigeria. It also boasts membership in Benin Republic, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Germany, Jamaica, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

From 1999 the OPC changed its fundamental objective from seeking self-determination for the Yoruba people to crime-fighting activities and the settlement of personal disputes. This change in the focus of the group may have been inspired by the popularity of other self-appointed vigilante groups like the Bakassi Boys in the southeast, notorious for its brutal extra-judicial killings.

However, the OPC has gone beyond vigilante activities and has also been involved in scores of armed attacks and mass murders against other ethnic groups living in southwest Nigeria, particularly in Lagos.

The Bakassi Boys

The Bakassi Boys, unlike the OPC, were not conceived to protect the Ibos, the dominant ethnic group in the southeast of Nigeria. Its emergence in 1999 was the direct consequence of the prevalence of armed robbery in major markets in southeast Nigeria by people who were nicknamed “Mafia.” This was particularly true of the Ariaria International Market in Aba, a major commercial centre in the southeast.

Bakassi derives its name from an area of the Ariaria Market that was so called because, like the Nigeria/Cameroon border, it used to be the subject of bitter dispute between two local governments in Abia State. A number of future Bakassi Boys had initially set up shoemaking businesses in this section of the market.

But these youths did not organise themselves into a group until July 1999 when the “Mafia” invaded the Bakassi section of the Market, robbing, raping, and killing. The shoemakers in the market were outraged and decided to transform into a vigilante group to confront the “Mafia.” In time, they were able to neutralise the excesses of the “Mafia” and thus became popular.

Their success at eliminating the “Mafia” conferred on the Bakassi Boys a mythical status. The group soon realized that it was more profitable to transform into a permanent institution for vigilante activities, earning fat monthly salaries from the contributions of traders. Their fame soon spread to other major cities and towns in the southeast where they were invited to rid markets of criminals.

The Bakassi Boys arrest suspected criminals arbitrarily, with little or no evidence, torture and summarily execute them in public. The group has also been accused of extorting large sums of money from citizens. In order take effective control over this group, many state governments in the southeast have sent bills to their state houses of assembly to give legal backing to their existence. This situation has understandably led to friction between traders who initially inspired the formation of the vigilante group and state governments that are now manipulating the group for political ends and for the intimidation of their opponents. The only notable exception is the Governor of Enugu State who has insisted that traditional law enforcement agencies in the State are capable of keeping the peace.

While traders’ associations initially financed the activities of the Bakassi Boys, state governments have since taken over this role. However, traders still pay monthly levies for the upkeep of the group. In Aba, every taxable adult pays a monthly due to the Bakassi Boys.

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB)

The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) is one of the most vocal ethnic militia groups in Nigeria. This group’s vision is to revive the former secessionist state of Biafra, which was created in 1967 by the Ibo ethnic group and defeated after three years of Civil War in 1970. Formed in late 1999, the group is led by a 44-year-old lawyer, Ralph Uwazurike.

MASSOB has been on regular collision with the police, leading to the deaths of both its members and those of enforcement agents. Between December 2000 and April 2001, MASSOB members had severe clashes with the police when the MASSOB youths seized northbound fuel tankers. The youths claimed that there was imbalance in the distribution of petroleum products in the country at the expense of the southeast.

On 27 May 2000 Mr Uwazurike gathered over 10,000 youths in Aba and made an unsuccessful attempt at launching the “New Biafran” national anthem, currency notes, national flag and constitution. During the botched launching, he declared that the group had been created to protect Ibos against lethal attacks, particularly by upholders of Sharia laws in Kaduna State in the north.

But MASSOB does not enjoy the support of the Igbo elite. Ohaneze Ndigbo, the apex body of pan-Ibo groups, has expressed its opposition to the group. Similarly, the Governors of the five southeastern States have dissociated the Governments and people of their States from the activities of MASSOB. Most ironically, Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, who led the secession of Ibos from Nigeria in 1967, has refused to support the group.

The Egbesu Boys of Africa

The Egbesu Boys of Africa is the militia group of the dominant Ijaw ethnic group in the Niger Delta region. The Ijaws are scattered across six states: Bayelsa, Rivers, Edo, Delta, Ondo and Akwa Ibom. Egbesu is their mythical god of revenge.

The Egbesu Boys of Africa are considered the military wing of the Ijaw National Congress, which has vowed to fight against the exploitation of the people of the Niger Delta by oil multi-nationals and the Nigerian Government. The activities of the Egbesu Boys consist of kidnapping foreign oil workers for ransom, sabotaging oil installations and attacking law enforcement agents. Lately wealthy individuals in the Niger Delta region have also used them as “private armies.”

The Egbesu Boys are popular for the ultimatum they issued in December 1998, called the Kaiama Declaration, which demanded for the immediate withdrawal of all military personnel in the Niger Delta. The youths declared that any oil company that employed the services of the armed forces of the Nigerian Government to “protect” its operation would be viewed as an enemy of the Ijaw people. The Egbesu Boys have also expressed solidarity with other militia groups in the country such as the O’odua People’s Congress (OPC) and the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP).

In confrontations with Government and members of the Nigerian armed forces, the Egbesu Boys have destroyed entire communities such as Odi and Umuechem. These Ijaw youths are known to possess sophisticated weapons, which are reportedly provided by retired military officers in the area.

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP)

The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) was formed in 1990 and has campaigned for political autonomy and a greater share of the oil revenue derived from Ogoni land. It has its origins in the Ogoni Bill of Rights produced in 1990 by the late Ken Saro Wiwa, the former leader of MOSOP, who was executed by the military regime of the late General Sani Abacha.

The MOSOP has fairly the same operational modalities as the Egbesu Boys. The core of its membership is drawn from the youth of Ogoni – a minority ethnic group in the southern Rivers State. Since the end of military rule in 1999, the MOSOP has been relatively quiet.

The Hisbah groups

The Hisbah groups are Islamic vigilantes in the predominantly Muslim States of the North that have adopted the Sharia legal system over the past three years. The States are: Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi, Kano, Jigawa, Katsina and Kaduna in the northwest; Yobe, Borno, Bauchi and Gombe in the northeast; as well as Niger State in the north central region.

None of the Hisbah groups is well organised, and neither do they have any central command. But they have often spearheaded violent conflicts with Christians and other non-Muslims in the North. Most of the Hisbah groups are sponsored by state governments that practise Sharia, and draw their membership from the army of the unemployed in those states.

In most cases, the Hisbah groups arbitrarily arrest offenders of the Sharia legal code and dispense their version of justice without recourse to the traditional law enforcement agencies.

Response to Militia Groups

There has been a lot of concern about the proliferation of ethno-religious militia groups since the restoration of democratic rule in 1999. Last year a bill was sent to the National Assembly seeking to outlaw all militia groups in the country. Titled the Prohibition of Certain Associations Act 2002, the bill seeks the power to ban quasi-military groups that are religious, politically inspired, ethnic-based and essentially lawless.

Apart from ethnic militia groups, the bill also aims to neutralise other organizations whose membership includes prominent politicians that purport to represent ethnic or sectional interests. Among these are the Yoruba Afenifere, the Igbo Ohaneze and the Arewa Consultative Forum. These groups have been accused of encouraging the activities of regional and religious militants. Their prohibition is, therefore, expected to deal effectively with problems of ethnic and religious conflict.

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