Despite knowing the consequences of engaging in mob action, many Nigerians have not been dissuaded from engaging in the unlawful conduct at any slightest chance. In this report, KEHINDE OSASONA x-rays the ugly phenomenon and its attendant consequences.
Has jungle justice come to stay? Quoting the late legal luminary and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, he said, ‘it is unlawful to be lawful in a lawless society.’ He concluded that unless government is ready to obey court judgments, not minding whose ox is gored, the act of lawlessness and impunity called jungle justice will continue in perpetual proportions.
In attesting to what was foretold in years past, a fortnight ago, certain foreigner was photographed in one of the Nigerian dailies, pleading with the angry mobs to spare the life of an alleged and unlucky bag snatcher who had already been descended on, beaten, battered and pelted with stone to the point of comma in one of Abuja’s suburbs.
The gory scene, as witnessed by the man in question, no doubt, has apparently become a common occurrence in our clime, so much that it is gradually growing to being a culture in Nigeria as it were. For legal experts however, they argue that low class offenders like petty thieves, kidnappers and others are always at the receiving ends of the tragedy and dastardly act called ‘mob justice’. Another school of thought opines that people who get involved in the act may have seen mob justice as a last resort to preventing such criminals from buying their freedom from the police custody.
Considerably, many still considered the act as totally lawless and barbaric which is capable of turning a society to a place where anything goes. Recent report also has it that many of the victims of jungle justice are often innocent but merely fell victims of such nasty circumstances. Sociological perspective A sociologist, Kumbi Adenekan, believes jungle justice thrives in the country because none has been prosecuted before now, as many often disperse and escape into thin air after perpetrating the crime.
She says: “In the guise of satisfying their lawless desire, many Nigerians had engaged in extrajudicial killings where irate mob subjects an alleged criminal to various forms of humiliation or even summary execution occasioned by transferred aggression in most cases without allowing the law to take its course. “Nigeria’s dysfunctional criminal justice system has given room for some of the criminals to buy their freedom from the hands of police and continue to torment the society.
In a reprisal manner, many people involved in the practice were forced to vent their anger on their next unfortunate victims,” Taming the scourge In curbing the trend, the upper chamber, had in 2016, mandated its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to expedite action on the passage of the Anti-Jungle Justice Bill before it. Following a heated debate thereafter, a bill condemning the rising cases of mob justice in Nigeria emanated from the Senate. Having weighed the consequence of frequent occurrences of the ugly development in the country, without hesitation, the lawmakers not only frowned at such act but also described it as inhuman and unacceptable. In discouraging the menace therefore, the upper legislative chamber therefore advised that Nigerians should endeavour to abide with the principle of the rule of law.
Explaining reasons for their actions, the legislators further hinged their deed on a number of such incidents where people resort to mob action as a way of redressing the society’s inability to access justice. In 2017, Senate President Bukola Saraki was quoted as having said, “the Anti-Jungle Justice Bill (SB. 109), which is sponsored by Senator Dino Melaye, APC-Kogi, will help to curtail, protect and prohibit Nigerians across the country from meting out extra-judicial justice to perceived off enders without recourse to statutory legal channels.
“There have been many cases of extrajudicial executions across the nation. We all remember the ‘Aluu Four’ incident, and several other notorious cases of phone and food thieves being set ablaze. We cannot have a situation where people feel that they can take the law into their hands. “Therefore, we must put in place careful stopgaps and penal measures to protect the sanctity of our communities.
The Committee on Judiciary and the Rules and Business Committees of the Senate would work to ensure that AntiJungle Justice Bill is quickly passed and sent to the House of Representatives for concurrence.” Police warn Recently, Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, warned irate that there is no legal justification for jungle justice, arguing that in most cases, vital evidences that could aid the Police in the course of investigation are destroyed.
“There is no justification for jungle justice on suspected persons. It is barbaric and uncivilized. It is a manifestation of the erosion of our moral values and a disregard to sanctity of human lives. It violates the rule of law and dents the image of the State. Above all, it is a violation of the law, and all those arrested in connection with the aforementioned cases will be made to face the full wrath of the law,” Owoseni said.
What does the law say? Two cardinal principles of natural justice imply that: audi alterem paten & nemo judex in causa sua which means that no one must be judged or condemned without fair hearing or trial. It also stipulates that; you cannot be a judge in your own case. A legal practitioner, Chijioke Uti says jungle justice is primitive and illegal. According to him, “as a result and nature of our system in Nigeria, the number of policemen needed to curtail some of these ugly situations is not enough. I think there is need to assign more policemen to various places. “Again, in order to forestall things like this, the call for state police should be re-echoed so that they can reach out promptly during an emergency to nip such mob crime in the bud and hand over the culprit to security agency.
“I do not think it is part of our culture but will rather attribute some of these crimes to the economic situation in the country. An angry man is a devil workshop. They can engage in any act to even overshadow the law.” Frowning at people’s disregard for rules of law, Uti believes that “rule of law is not obeyed in this country, even court orders are not obeyed in certain circumstances. I believe there is need for us to go to drawing board.” Blueprint is particularly disturbed that despite the spate of campaign and law that frown at jungle justice, eff orts to diminish it, and save victims from extra-judicial killings have been somewhat herculean. At this juncture, stakeholders believe that it is incumbent upon all and sundry to as a matter of urgency, imbibe the culture of obeying the law and change dispositions to the culture of lynching alleged criminals in the society
