Jungle justice incidences are on the rise in Nigeria. Many have resorted to delivering judgement by taking the laws into their hands, instead of allowing the relevant authorities to do the needful. To them, the law allows these suspected criminals back into society. Is this gorwing trend the best for the country? Daily Trust reports.
Sokoto State in the North-West geopolitical zone has topped the chart of 190 people killed through jungle justice in Nigeria in two years. Daily Trust record has shown.
The record, which revealed rising cases of people being killed across the country, has 83 incidents from January to November, 2020 and 107 lynched in such circumstances from January to September 2021.
Daily Trust reports that 18 suspected criminals were killed in Sokoto, 13 in Anambra, 13 in Delta, 12 in Edo, 11 in Kaduna, 11 in Adamawa, 11 in Lagos, 10 in Benue, 10 in Cross River, 10 in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 8 in Oyo, 7 in Akwa Ibom, Niger and Ogun respectively.
Others were 5 in Ebonyi, 4 each in Imo, Katsina and Osun, 3 each in Abia, Ekiti, Bayelsa, Kano, 2 each in Plateau and Ondo, 1 in Taraba, Bauchi, Enugu, Jigawa, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa and Rivers.
In the six geopolitical zones of the country, the data also indicates that South- South topped the chart with 46, North-West 38, South-West 35, South-East 26, North-Central 22 and North-East 13.
Based on these statistics, 20 out of the 190 victims (suspected criminals) usually had tyres doused in petrol thrown around them at different locations and set ablaze, while the rest were beaten to death.
In some cases, these brutal attacks were filmed and circulated on the social media, with victims not given a chance to defend themselves or any effort by the mob to verify whether they were truly the offenders.
The record further shows that these victims were lynched for committing alleged offences, ranging from kidnapping, banditry, armed robbery, rape, blasphemy, thief, ritual or witchcraft.
In the most recent incident that happened in Tangaza, Sokoto State on September 18, 2021, some angry mob sacked police headquarters, lynched 13 bandits and set their bodies ablaze.
The bandits were said to be among those that invaded the town and killed two persons, including a shop owner and carted away some food items in the shop.
It was gathered that the bandits forced two young residents of the area to carry the food items into the bush for them, after which they killed them.
However, in an early-hours raid, joint security operatives with the support of local vigilantes arrested 13 of the attackers in Tangaza forest and brought them to the divisional headquarters.
Daily Trust gathered that all the stolen food items were recovered during the operation.
A resident of the area who did not want his name mentioned, said that when the suspected bandits were brought to the state, angry youths in the area stormed the station, overpowered the police, killed all the suspects and set their corpses on fire.
He said that residents of the area were now all out to defend their community against any possible reprisal attack.
“More security operatives have been deployed to the area,” he said.
The incident was confirmed by the spokesman of the Sokoto police command, ASP Sanusi Abubakar.
In another incident that happened on April 7, 2021, a prisoner who escaped from Owerri correctional facility was set ablaze by residents of Umuawom village, Ikeduru of Imo State.
Sources said the lynched prisoner was a kidnapper who was convicted by a competent court of law.
After he escaped from the prison on Monday, he was said to have gone to his home in Umuawom and started threatening a family who testified against him during his trial in court.
He allegedly attacked a member of the said family with a gun, which angered the villagers, who caught him, beat him to a pulp and set him ablaze.
In another mob action, a female bandit and two others were killed in Sokoto after their failed attack on a Fulani community in Goronyo Local Government Area of Sokoto.
The youths also torched the office of the vigilante group, where the suspected bandits were temporarily kept.
It was said that the bandits came to Ruga, a Fulani community at the outskirts of Goronyo, around midnight to rustle cows, but faced stiff resistance from the nomads, who also arrested three of the attackers.
“The people there are well prepared. Bullets don’t penetrate them. They foiled the attack, arrested three of the bandits and handed them over to vigilantes in the morning.
“When the news about the arrest reached our youths, they mobilised and stormed their (vigilantes) office in Goronyo town, where the bandits were temporarily kept.
“The youths were irked by the unremorseful utterances of a female bandit, who was bragging that she had been arrested and released and she knew she would be free again.
“This was what triggered their action; they overpowered the vigilantes and set the office on fire.
“One of the suspects died inside the office while the female and the other suspect tried to escape through the window but were caught, killed and their corpses burnt to ashes,” an eyewitness told Daily Trust.
The chairman of the local government council, Abdulwahab Yahya, who confirmed the incident, said the bandits had been rustling animals in the area despite the presence of 60 mobile policemen.
“Many cows were rustled near the divisional police headquarters, which is adjacent to the governor’s lodge that is accommodating the mobile policemen.
“The people are tired of these incessant attacks. They think we are not doing enough to end it and decided to be taking law into their hand, which is very wrong,” he said.
The spokesman of the Sokoto police command also confirmed the attack but said the information at his disposal was very scanty at the time of filing this report.
‘How I watched my younger brother burnt alive’
In what seems like a dream to her, Miss Ibisobia Elkanah narrated how she watched her younger brother, a university student and his friends maimed and burnt alive by a mob in Umuokiri village, Aluu, Rivers State.
Ibisobia said she was in the house of her friend in the community when she heard people shouting. “I dashed out and beckoned on my friend to come since she lived in the area.
“The incident attracted much noise and attention. I went there but did not actually see or recognise any of them due to the crowd.
“I heard when people were saying those caught by the vigilance group were strangers and they wanted to burn them.
“They said they were asking questions so that they could know their senders,” she narrated.
Ibisobia said she went back to her friend’s house but her instinct told her that something was wrong so she went back.
“I followed a bush path so that I could see the boys properly. When I jumped, I saw Tekena, my brother. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I jumped again and saw Lloyd (one of the victims), so, I started shouting,” she added.
Ibisobia said she continued shouting that Tekena was her brother, saying he came to her on Thursday from school and she gave him his school fees. “I told them that somebody should allow me to ask him what happened and what he came to do. He would confide in me. He was wailing and in a pool of blood.”
She said her brother and his friends were laid in the water naked, with leaves covering their nakedness. “I struggled and entered the crowd. Somebody shouted ‘Who is that? What is she doing inside?’ People were pushing me and I started crying, telling them that he was my brother and not a thief. Somebody behind me said I should run for my life.
“About two people turned and asked, ‘Are you sure he is your brother? Maybe she was the person that sent him to go and steal.’ But I replied, “How could I send him, do I look like such a person? They said I should run for my life or I would be the person.”
Ibisobia said that before she could get to her friend’s room to call her family members, she learnt that the mob had taken them to the burrow pit. “So, I went there again.
“I called my family and they started coming. The police van came, went into the mob and they were talking to them (youths). The people kept quiet as police were making statements.
“The police talked and they laughed. The next was for me to see three policemen coming out of the mob, entered their van and drove off. I was gripped with fear. I saw the flames. I was thinking they would burn them after they killed them, but they burnt them while they were alive,” she narrated, crying.
Victims killed on mere suspicion
In some cases, victims were assaulted on the slightest provocation or mere suspicion without any evidence. It is also becoming more alarming by the day.
On November 10, 2020, a fleeing pastor in charge of the Divine Shadow Church in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, Uhembe Jacob, was lynched by villagers, who alleged that he was involved in the missing of male organs in the community.
Jacob was also accused of collecting N12,000 from every resident who complained of the disappearance of their genitals before curing them.
The pastor was killed after a mob burnt his house and church.
A resident of the area, who simply gave his name as Dennis, said the pastor was attacked when he attempted to leave for another village in Nasarawa State.
“The man ought to have been arrested by the Daudu divisional police officer, but he decided to run away. He was killed in a village along Lafia road,” he said.
The killing of the pastor was said to have triggered a protest by his church members on Sunday, who demanded justice for him.
The police public relations officer in the state, DSP Catherine Anene, said, “The pastor was to be picked up by the DPO in Daudu, but he rushed into his vehicle and fled. He was later killed.”
According to a 2014 survey by Leighann Spencer, a PhD research fellow in Criminology, Charles Sturt University, “43% of Nigerians had personally witnessed a mob attack.”
Nigeria can’t afford to manage anarchy – Analyst
A security analyst, Dennis Macree, attributed the rising cases of jungle justice in the country to lack of confidence in the criminal justice system in the country.
He observed that people had become very tired and angry about what is going on in the society, saying, “In Nigeria today, everybody is worried about kidnapping, banditry and terrorism. People are feeling very insecure.
“Now, the perpetrators are not properly arrested by government’s security forces, prosecuted and jailed so that everybody knows that the course of justice is being taken. With this, there is the tendency for them to take laws into their hands and deliver the justice themselves.
“That is why you find out that in cities like Lagos, when people catch them terrorising the society, they beat them and burn them down. I think that is what is going on. It deviates the country from the rule of law, where the courts are supposed to do their jobs. And this is happening because the criminal justice system is not working.
“So, we will want the police, which is the beginning of the criminal justice system, to arrest and prosecute properly. These people should be jailed. And let people know that bandits that were arrested have been jailed. Without that, jungle justice will continue.”
He said that to bring an end to the situation, only the political will of the political class can make a difference because they are not in full control, and if they are not in full control, things like this will continue to happen.
“I think the political class, especially the National Assembly, should take the resolve to make sure the system works. That is the only way you can avoid anarchy in the society,” he said.
On how the trend keeps rising, he said, “Like I said, the government has to take the lead. When I say the government I don’t mean only the president, the judicial system is government, the legislative system is government; these people should take the lead in making sure that these people are arrested and prosecuted.
“What you are seeing now is the resolve of people who were fed up with bandits killing their people, burning their houses. If the judicial system is not handling it properly, they will take the law into their hands. Government should arrest the situation because Nigeria cannot afford to manage anarchy.”
Another analyst also attributed the unabated trend of the jungle justice to dysfunctional and corrupt judiciary system, debased value system and loss of confidence in law enforcement agencies.
What the police say
The police usually confirmed almost all the attacks, even though they hardly gave details.
Efforts made to speak to the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force, Frank Mba, on the reasons behind jungle justice in Nigeria, were not successful as he did not pick several calls to him, neither did he respond to a text message sent to him.
What lawyers said about jungle justice
Niyi Akintola (SAN), says it is vote of no confidence in our criminal justice administration. “For instance when people are arrested for crime, and three, four months later the police will tell you that they are still carrying out investigation. And people are seeing that this fellow actually committed this crime.
“Take the case of Evans for instance. “
Hameed Ajibola Jimoh Esq, says courts are becoming no more the last hope of the common man rather, “They are most likely being seen by such common man or victim of oppression as a place for the deceitful, the cunning, the oppressor, the rich, the powerful, among others, where they have their ways and the victim, the oppressed, the less privileged have to continuously cry helplessly for help.
“The National Judicial Council and the legislature have a lot of roles to play so as to redeem and regain people’s trust back. Just as the judiciary has greater roles to play, the executive must take up the welfare and security of its citizens as primary purposes as envisaged by Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). This will make citizens to engage in hard-work that gives no room for devilish manifestation. A lazy hand is a tool for the devil,” he said.
E.M.D. Umukoro Esq, says jungle justice has no place in our laws. “However, the spate of jungle justice appears to gain widespread acceptance or practice and this can be attributed to a number of reasons. Chief among them is lack of public confidence in the Administration of Justice System.
“Where the people lack confidence in the criminal justice process, where the people do not believe if a suspect is apprehended that justice will be met, where suspects are arrested by the people but freed by police, where lack of thorough investigation leads to miscarriage of justice, where protracted years of court case leads to nowhere, then the people are most likely going to seek alternative means of justice.”
Jungle justice not peculiar to Nigeria
Mob lynching is not unique to Nigeria or Africa. The neighboring Cameroon is said to have the highest rate of jungle justice in Africa, where at least one person faces mob rule at the hands of irate citizens for perceived crimes daily.
Also, until the mid-1900, African-Americans were commonly lynched in southern USA. Attempts were made to pass the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, but it was always halted by southern congressmen in the Senate.
In 2005, the Senate formally apologised for failure to pass the bill, the New York Times of June 14, 2005 reported.
By: Hamisu Kabir Matazu, John Chuks Azu & Haruna Ibrahim
