Recently, cases of mob action popularly called jungle justice resurfaced in parts of the country especially Lagos where several suspects were killed. OLALEKAN OLABULO writes that several factors could be responsible for this, even as police move to nip it in the bud.
IT is not uncommon these days for Nigerians to open their whatsapp platforms and be inundated with all manners of graphic pictures and videos, mostly offensive, involving cases of mob actions in which alleged suspected kidnappers and other criminals are set on fire or beaten to death.

Mobs blame suspects for the fate that befall them, while police blame the mob for taking the lawminto their own hands, even as rights groups and legal practitioners sometime blame the failure of the legal system for the perpetration of mob actions which have failed to abate.

Less than 72 hours after the police arrested about 30 suspects in connection with the killing of two suspected ritualists in Obadeyi Area of Ijaiye, Lagos recently, two other suspects were killed in similar mob actions at Ile Zik Area of Ikeja and Mosalasi Bus Stop along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway in the state. The timely intervention of anti riot policemen had prevented further mob action from residents who sometimes defy the presence of heavily armed policemen.

As gory as most of the scenes are, one will always find several people recording them with their mobile phones. Unfortunately, sometimes, the alleged suspects turned out to be innocent. Examples of such misguided acts include that of the Ikorodu murder of a young comedian, Chinedu Paul, popularly known as Think twice.

In different parts of the country, scavengers, mentally-challenged people as in the case of a young girl in Borno State mistaken for a suicide bomber, including okada riders, had been mistakenly lynched for offences they never committed.

Late last year, a commander of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority was murdered by an angry mob who accused operatives of the traffic agency of causing the death of a motor boy. In another gory incident, four suspected land speculators in Adamo area of Ikorodu were killed after some people raised the alarm that they were members of the dreaded Badoo group. It took the intervention of heavily armed policemen to douse the tension resulting from the backlash in the Ikorodu community as colleagues of the slain land speculators went on the rampage, setting ablaze three houses and motorcycles. Unfortunately the damage had been done and could never be remedied.

The issue got to a head recently at the height of the kidnap saga in Lagos when a tunnel supposedly being used by kidnappers was discovered on the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway. Even the police in Lagos State had cause to worry and raised the alarm over the spate of mob killings. Lagos State police commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, had to make use of different fora to warn residents to desist from actions that constitute taking the laws into their hands. In an apparent attempt to discourage the act, the police arrested no fewer than 80 suspects in connection with some of the incidents of mob actions in Ikorodu, Obadeyi, Ikeja and Alagbado areas of the state.

Why it is happening

Some of the residents, who spoke with Sunday Tribune blamed corruption in the police and the judiciary for the resort to jungle justice. The residents unanimously alleged that several suspects often regain freedom after they might have been handed over to the police or other law enforcement agencies.

A resident of Agric Area of Ikorodu, Toba Olorunfemi, believes that feelings of revenge sometimes form the basis of mob actions and that it will be difficult to stop.

“It (jungle justice) is very difficult to stop. When you witness some of the atrocities perpetrated by these criminals, one would be forced to join in determining their fate.

“Imagine a scene where a family of about six people is wiped out by Badoo members and one of them is arrested. What would naturally come to the mind of an average person is to give the suspect a dose of his own medicine.

“When you also consider the fact these people have sponsors who are very wealthy and influential, you may have no choice than to resort to jungle justice. Some of the people that were arrested in the past and handed over to the police were released and that is even more dangerous to the people that arrested them, “he said, adding that the criminals want to live on the fast lane without working for money.

The police, however, disagree. They averred that cases of jungle justice occur as a result of lack of trust in the police and the judiciary which shouldn’t be. The security force however lay the blame solely on pervading anger in the country, occasioned by economic hardship, illiteracy and lack of public enlightenment.

A senior police officer who spoke under the condition of anonymity said “I want to blame some of those incidents on rumour-mongering. If you look at the Obadeyi story, there were many unfounded rumours and yet no single track of ritual killing in that area.

“There were rumours that they saw the ritualists dragging a woman into the drainage. I searched the drainage thoroughly and there was not a trace of any killing or any woman. There were also rumours that there were underground link to Agege abbatoir, Ayobo and other places… these claims were unfounded. Some of them even said that they brought out TVs, generators and other appliances from the drainage,” the senior policeman said.

He also blamed illiteracy for the rising cases of jungle justice, saying: “I want to describe that (the act) as the height of illiteracy. How can you just kill and set somebody ablaze after an accusing them of being kidnappers or committing other crimes. I strongly believe that well-educated people will not indulge in such things.”

The officer police called for strong and effective orientation of the people on the position of the law on jungle justice.

“There is anger in the land. Some are merely taking advantage of the economic situation in the country to vent their anger on any accused person, “he noted.

He was however quick to admit that lack of trust in the police is also a major reason for jungle justice but pointed out that the problem goes beyond the police.

“Yes, these people don’t have any trust in the police but they don’t have any in the judiciary as well. What people quickly forget is that the police can only arrest, they cannot commit criminals to prison,” he said.

Faulty justice system?

Speaking on the reoccurring cases of jungle justice in the country, the Executive Director of Access to Justice, Joseph Otteh, pointed out that the resonance of jungle justice is the failure of the criminal justice system to hold people accountable for the crime they commit.

“The state of our criminal justice system is weak, disoriented, and not reliable. The primary operatives of the system have clearly not lived up to expectation; they constantly perform below par and many times offer bail for justice.

“The criminal justice system is slack; there is nobody to hold anybody accountable for performance. When you report a case to the police and that case is compromised at the police level and there is nothing to say to those who are involved in the investigation to account for how they performed in relation to their duty (and the case at hand) that means there is problem,” Otteh said.

Way Forward

Commander of the Rapid Response Squad, Olatunji Disu, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, while speaking on what the police in the state are doing on rising cases of jungle justice said: “we are trying as much as possible to curtail the situation.

We embark on training and retraining of our officers from time to time. You can see that we made some arrests recently. We are not limiting our efforts to that; we have embarked on enlightenment exercises to many communities. The CP had been in some communities in Ikorodu and other places and warned them to desist from jungle justice.”

Azeez Bolaji, one of the coordinators of the Ikorodu Ambassadors a socio-cultural group also condemned jungle justice.

“Absolutely, we as a group never supported jungle justice; albeit, the crimes being perpetrated in Ikorodu and its environs these days, have created fears in the minds of the locals. However, there are several agencies that are trained and given the mandate to ensure our safety, therefore, when a criminal is apprehended by the locals, we are duty-bound to hand him or her to these law enforcement agencies. No matter our level of provocation, we as law abiding citizens and esteemed members of Ikorodu Ambassadors, should never be found amongst those breaking the law or throwing caution to the winds,“ he stated.

However, just as one respondent said, it may be a tough battle to stop mob actions; but it is possible, only when citizens, the government, law enforcement agencies and the judicial system do the right thing.

hmm...
I didn't read this whole thing oh... but what I'll say is that I don't support jungle Justice but in a case where by a ritualist or a kidnapper is caught, I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be lynched... I mean these people take lives of relatives without pity.. so yeah in that case they deserve it