Oluseto Olatuyi,Kunle Adeyemi and Semiu Okanlawon

The group had in the last five years engaged in security vigilance services to communities in the South-West, ostensibly to supplement police efforts.

But their mode of operation has always placed them on collision course with the police.

A statement by the National Secretary-General, of the group, Alhaji Lateef Lawal, said the withdrawal from vigilance services was to put an end to the frequent confrontation with the police.

He hoped that the step would stem the mutual suspicion between the organisation and the police.

Factional leaders of the OPC, Dr. Frederick Fasehun and Chief Gani Adams, were arrested on October 22 following a spate of violent clashes between the factions in which many persons were killed and properties destroyed.

They were arraigned at a Federal High Court, Abuja, for treason on December 1.

Lawal, who is a leading member of the Fasehun faction, said, “We have since the arrest and detention of our leaders on October 22, 2005, and their subsequent detention in Abuja discovered that the police hierarchy and the rank and file always nurse a misconception about the complementary role our members have played in the recent past to stem the spate of armed robberies and other vices, especially in the South-West states.”

He lamented that social miscreants and motor park touts usually claimed to be OPC members when they were caught after committing criminal acts.

“We are therefore imploring the police to always demand for a duly signed identification card by our national President, Dr. Fasehun, from whoever falls foul of the law and claims to be a member of the congress,” he added.

When contacted by our correspondent, the Adams-led faction said the two camps agreed on the withdrawal of vigilance services.

An aide to Adams, Mr. Segun Akanni, in a telephone interview, said his faction took the decision two weeks ago when it became clear that nobody had come to the aid of the organisation since the arrest of Fasehun and Adams.

He said, “We are united on the matter. It is true we did not formally meet to take that decision. But we have since realised that nobody appreciates what our group has been doing in the area of protecting lives and property. If they do, at least, people would have risen in defence of our leaders and seek their release.”

The Lagos State Police Command said the OPC’s decision to dump its vigilance services was welcome.

The command argued that the group’s activities never had any positive impact on police work. It added that OPC members created problems for the police.

Spokesman for the command, Mr. Olubode Ojajuni, a deputy superintendent of police, told our correspondents that the police’s task of maintaining security would better be felt without the involvement of the OPC.

He said, “Their so-called vigilance services have no impact on the police. We are not in any pact with them, we never employed them to do that job for us. In fact, their activities usually bring misunderstanding between us and members of the public.”

The PPRO acknowledged that the OPC volunteered to work with the police, but he said the police did not give them the licence to take the law into their hands.

“What we said was that any group that was lawful and had respect for the rule of law would be accommodated by the police and we will work with the group, but the OPC members has always been controversial in their acts,” Ojajuni said.

He cited the Neighbourhood Watch (another vigilance group), saying nobody ever heard any bad report on the way its members went about their activities.

Ojajuni said if some members of the OPC had not been reckless in their activities, the group would have been left to operate like the Neighbourhood Watch.

He added, “What the law says is that anybody or group that arrests any suspect must hand over such person to the police immediately, but these people do all sorts of unimaginable things with the people they claim to have arrested.

“We can do our job, we are equal to the task, our men are doing wonderfully well and some members of the public have attested to that. We need no group to tell or teach us how to do our work.”

The PUNCH, Wednesday, December 28, 2005