In community policing, the name of Chief Felix Muoghalu, chairman, Okpuno-Egbu Community Security Organization, Umudim Nnewi, Anambra State rings a bell as his dreaded local vigilante outfit is well known.

Chief Muoghalu became a vigilante leader in 1989 when he formed the organization he serves today as its chairman.
One of his major security strategies in Okpuno-Egbu is mounting security gates at strategic points within the community and today he has 22 gates which now serve as an unbreakable barrier to hoodlums who may want to attack the community.

Apart from being the chairman of Okpuno-Egbu Community Security Organization, Muoghalu is as also the chairman of Umudim Nnewi United Vigilante, as well as the general chairman of Uruagu and Umudim Central Vigilante, Nnewi.

The security guru in Nnewi told Daily Sun that he has a good relationship with the police, especially the Central Police Station; Nnewi under Mr Ogundele (CSP) who he said has maintained harmonious working relations with vigilantes in the industrial city. Excerpts:

How I started
I began vigilante operation in 1989 when the Federal Government gave communities order to begin and set up vigilance groups. In 1994, I was made the chairman of Okpuno-Egbu Community Security Organization which I am still controlling till date.

I was an ex-Biafran soldier and I tried my best as an Igbo man. I fought the war. I’m not new in anything security. I have the training and I know the job.
Okpuno-Egbu is a community with about seven sub-large entities, including Ekwulu Layout which is almost half of Okpuno-Egbu. This layout has a heavy concentration of no-indigenes and that was the first place we secured by erecting gates at strategic places within the area.

Reforms
When I took over in 1994, I discovered that the name of the vigilante group was not suitable. I had to rename it Okpuno-Egbu Community Vigilante Security Organization which it answers till today. There were so many reforms and changes which I introduced to suit the new trend in community policing. That was and has been in line with the rising crime wave all over the place.

Security consciousness
We are security conscious in the community and we found out that the only thing we can do to safeguard the community was to bottle up all the roads leading to the community. That was the first programme I mapped out. I started constructing gates and had up to 22 standard gates and when you approach each of them you would feel as if you were entering a king’s palace, but it is only one of the gates leading to the community.
When we finished the gates criminals could not have the opportunity to come in. If you dare come in as a criminal you will get trapped. We tried to make Okpuno-Egbu a city of many gates where criminal activities are kept at the lowest ebb. That does not stop residents who go their normal businesses from coming in or going out.

We close some of the gates by 9:00p.m and open them by 5:30a.m or 6:00a.m. But Eme Court road gates numbers one and two, the one that faces Owerri Road and another that faces Police Area Command, Nnewi are closed by 10:00p.m with our security operatives stationed there in case there are emergencies. Another one that faces St. Luck’s Hospital is also closed by 10:00p.m with stand-by security guards there.

Cost of gates
We constructed the first set of gates and it did not serve the purpose. We constructed the second set; it did not serve the purpose. We destroyed all of them to erect these standard ones. As a matter of fact, some of them cost between N300, 000 and N400, 000. It depends on the area the gate is constructed. If it is an erosion prone site we would first of all check the erosion before mounting the gate. So, we spent a lot of money in putting those gates here and there. If you put the cost together, we have spent not less than N11 million on those gates.

Benefits
Since we constructed the gates people in the community now sleep with their two eyes closed because there is no entry point for the bandits. And if you manage to go in as a criminal or maybe you are one of the residents of the community as a criminal, you cannot escape because we will definitely fish you out based on our security network. You cannot steal a car in Okpuno-Egbu and escape with it or even a motorcycle. As soon as that happens and the information comes to us all the gates will be kept on surveillance and the criminal must be caught. Some of the criminals when they come close to the gate and find out that they cannot escape abandon the car or motorcycle and run away. My gallant boys are ever vigilant. You can see our two patrol vans there which we use to handle any emergency situation.

Experiences
We have had so many experiences. There was a time gunmen attacked one man called Jetimo from Ukpor, resident in Ekwulu Layout. We arrested the bandits with their guns and handed them over to the police. That was, of course, in the 80s when we had not put up the present security arrangement on ground. Another one happened near Calido Hotel, though not recent too, we overpowered the criminals. There was another one at Nzewi Estate at Ekwulu Layout where there were 60 rooms in three plots. I went there with my men and we flushed them out.
We had series of encounters with them in the past. But with these gates in place criminal activities are now rarely mentioned in Okpuno-Egbu and we keep on strategizing. And we make special appeal to residents of Okpuno-Egbu to always give us information about any suspicious character within the community. We will make it confidential, but will act on it promptly.

Police relationship
We have no problem with the police. We work in co-operation with them. But government should assist vigilantes the more in terms of logistics. We appreciate Governor Peter Obi’s effort and his untiring resolve to assist communities in Anambra to maintain the local vigilantes, but we need more financial support to argument whatever we can raise at the community level.

Okpuno-Egbu vigilante has a good relationship with the police, especially the Nnewi Central Police Station (CPS) under the DPO, Mr Ogundele (CSP). He has rescued so many community vigilantes that had collapsed in Nnewi.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/nov/03/national-03-11-2010-0017.htm