SOURCE:

Faculty: Education
Department: Adult Education

CONTRIBUTORS:

Elekwa, B. C.
Obidiegwu, U. J.

ABSTRACT:

The study was carried out to evaluate the services of the vigilante security group in Abia State. The need for the study arose as a result of the rising incidence of armed robbery, kidnapping, murder, rape, human trafficking, experienced in communities in Abia State. The study was guided by four research questions and four null hypotheses. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study consisted of 9,947 respondents in the 17 local government areas of Abia State. A sample size of 792 respondents comprising of 708 town union executives and 84 policemen in 10 local government areas with registered vigilante units were used purposively for the study. Out of the 792 copies of questionnaires distributed, 764 copies of questionnaires were returned and used for the data analysis. Two instruments made of 62 items were used for the study, while Interview was used to elicit information on the vigilante security group in Abia State. Cronbach Alpha technique was used to determine the reliability of the instruments for the Town Union Executives (that represent the interest of the community members) and the Policemen respectively. For town union executives, reliability coefficients of 0.72, 0.80, 0.78 and 0.72 were obtained for the four sections, while the instrument for the Policemen yielded reliability coefficients of 0.78, 0.74 and 0.70 for the three sections. Data collected were analyzed using mean to answer research questions 1- 4 and t-test for testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that community members perceived the vigilante as being effective in fighting crime, the extent to which vigilante collaborate with police, reduce criminal activities and protect lives and properties was high. The implications of the study were highlighted and it was recommended among others that communities in conjunction with local government authorities should plan and organize constant seminars and training programmes for vigilante security to get them aware of the required novel practices and services on community policing. Finally, security committees should be established at the local government level to discuss security matters in order to develop a problem solving strategy that will enhance a sustainable secured environment.