22nd June, 2018
Adejoke Adeleye/Abeokuta
The Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) has dissociated itself from Vigilante Service of Ogun State.
The commandant of VGN in Ogun State, Commandant Nureni Olarenwaju,says the group was established by the Federal government and not state government.
He denied that the group had been merged with VSO.
Commandant Nureni also clarified that it was his group that rescued the Osun Speaker’s wife in 2014 and not VSO.
“Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) is not proscribed by any state or federal government. This press conference was organised to correct that erroneous report by an online medium.
“I remember in the year 2014, when we at vigilante Group of Nigeria was called by a palm wine tapper on a suspected kidnapping which the victim was later discovered to be the wife of the former honorable Speaker of Osun State. We swung into action and at the end, we got the woman freed and handed her over to the police with the suspects. We have pictures that show the suspects with VGN logo background for you to confirm the authenticity of our claim).
”We are shocked to read online a claim by VSO that our group has been proscribed. This is not true. VSO is a product of VGN.“
“I want to assure the public that the government of Ogun State led by our amiable Governor Ibikunle Amosun, has been of a great support to the VGN in Ogun State.
”His Excellency has not for a day deny or proscribed VGN in Ogun State and we have not received any letter to that effect. We want our people to know that this report is baseless. We implore our people to visit the state government to confirm the truth.”
”Vigilante Service of Ogun State was created as an arm of VGN in Ogun State so that it will stand as a security entity to work for the good people of Ogun under the supervision of VGN in Ogun State until the VSO denied our superiority,” he added.
In its reaction, the VSO said Vigilante Service of Nigeria (VGN), as at today is factionalized into three with three different commanders in the state. The outfit pointed out that such a disintegrated security outfit cannot claim to be in the fore front of curtailing crimes in the state.”
”We are not vigilante service of Nigeria but Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) in Nigeria including Ogun State is one led by the Commandant General, Dr. Usman Mohammed Jahun who installed and decorated me as the Ogun state commander.
“I repeat we have no faction in VGN. We are using this opportunity to let the good people of Ogun State know that we are readily available for their services in the area of security.”