Jungle justice is a form of public extrajudicial killings where an alleged criminal is humiliated, beaten or summarily executed by a crowd or vigilantes. Section 33(1) of the Nigerian constitution stated clearly that no citizen of the country shall be deprived of his or her life, except in a manner excused by law. But the reverse is the case, a lot of innocent life’s have been lost due to this gruesome behavior of some people. This act have been blamed on the dysfunctional and corrupt judicial system in the country and also, the law enforcement agencies which have lost all credibility.
Let’s take a look at some out of the numerous cases that was recorded:
An incident in the Jibia local government area of Katstina State, where three persons were killed by angry youths for allegedly giving them tips and providing information to kidnappers.
Another was recorded in Lagos last year April, when a young man alleged to be a ‘Yahoo Boy’ was stripped naked and mercilessly beaten up by women for defecating near a shop. The victim, who was accused of using excreta for an alleged ritual, was reportedly attacked and dragged by three women. Without a chance to explain himself, the young man was mobbed and also stripped naked as evidenced in a video on the incident that later went viral.
A young man identified as Temitope Adeoye who was burnt to death after he was said to have been wrongly accused of being a thief at Cele-Ijesha area of Lagos State on Monday, February 11, 2019. Temitope, who worked at Tin Can Island, Apapa Port, was on his way from the office that evening, when he met his death. He was said to have disembarked at Cele-Ijesha bus-stop, and was about to mount the commercial motorcycle that would take him home when some boys in the area started shouting “thief, thief” and pointing at him. Before he could say anything, he was rough handled, beaten up, stabbed and then set ablaze.
The Aluu 4 is a critical story of extra-judicial killing where four young boys, Ugonna Obuzor, Toku Lloyd, Chiadika Biringa and Tekena Elkanah, all students of the University of Port Harcourt were lynched in 2012, after they were falsely accused of being thieves in Aluu, a community in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. They were humiliated, beaten with sticks and even a policeman was caught hitting them with the butt of his gun. As the crowd continued to watch without doing anything, the mob dragged them through the mud; wrapped car tyres filled with petrol around their neck and set them ablaze. These are just few cases amongst the numerous cases of Jungle Justice in Nigeria.
With the rising number of cases, one would have to plead to relevant authorities, the law enforcement agencies and our judicial system to do the needful so that this act of extrajudicial killings will be reduced to its barest minimum. Also the people need to be sensitized on the dangers of partaking in any Form of extrajudicial killings, they need to know that taking laws into their hands is an offense on its own even if the victims are guilty. It is the duty of the law enforcement agencies to punish anyone found guilty of any offense. Jungle Justice is a wicked and barbaric act, it must be stopped.
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