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Apr. 11, 2007 Nigeria, our beloved naturally-endowed country has been described as a big modern jungle inhabited by people of diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds. That Nigeria has survived thus far still standing after series of political low blows delivered by those we wrongly entrusted her/our destiny in their hands is still a miracle. God knows why He is still keeping us all under one national flag as one indivisible entity; perhaps the Almighty God wanted to prove to the enemies within and without that despite their evil machinations against the interest of this great nation He will still have the last say on what Nigeria becomes in the nearest future. While home in December 2004 (Xmas being a great unique annual occassion east of the Niger when Ndigbo from far and near congregate in the hinterlands to commemorate with families and friends the birth of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ) I was shocked when one early Sunday morning as we were preparing to go to morning mass people were screaming with ecstacy near my family house. Some of my brothers and sisters and the little kids ran towards the direction where the unusual noise was coming from to know out of curiosity what went wrong. Within minutes one of the boys that went to the chaotic scene came back home to report that a thief was being beaten to death and he was the one shouting and crying out for mercy. I made my way to the scene and behold the village thief who went to a neighbouring house to attempt to steal the generating set was caught and being dealt with. The village robbers were three in number but the other two were lucky to escape leaving the unlucky one at the mercy of combined fury of the villagers. Blows were flying from every direction and sticks and other objects were being used to decimate the criminal. His naked body full of blood a pitiful spectacle I tried to intervene by pleading with my kinsmen to let go the man since it was illegal to kill him there because it is the duty of the police to take him to court and our duty according to the law to take him to the police. My people would not hear any of those judicial pontifications as they continued to reduce the unfortunate thief into a shadow of his former self. I then called out one of the elders supervising the mob action and warned him that in the event that the accused thief was killed in the village people could be charged for murder even if they were right in apprehending the generator thief. The elder brushed aside my views telling me that before now the village had been at the mercy of petty thieves from another village who sneaked into the village at late hours of the night stealing their cows, goats, motorcycles, water tanks and foodstuffs. My opposition to the beating heightened and the mob took the man away towards the forest where it was later reported that they dumped him there and he died later! Here in Abidjan few weeks back I was busy in my library reading and writing early morning when ominous human voices signalled that something was amiss outside. I called the gatekeeper and asked him what was going on. And he informed me that people had caught a thief who wanted to steal from a house that was not his. I dashed to the scene and beheld a semi-naked young man almost at the end of his tethers. He had been pummelled to a point of death by young men armed with sticks, stones and cutlasses. Bleeding profusely from his wounds I sought to intervene by telling his tormentors that I would be calling the police to take the petty robber away but they protested loudly saying that if police come and take him away he may be released later without being charged to court especially if his family shows up and pays for his bail. These two cases of jungle justice shows how people could take laws into their own hands having lost faith in the police and system of justice administration. Whatever be the case jungle justice can never replace the normal conventional dispensation of justice which holds that an accused person remains innocent until proven guilty by a competent court of law. In Nigeria especially the cities of Lagos, Aba and Onitsha you see people beaten to death by the roadside or those who met their deaths by people using disused tyres to burn them to ashes. Mob justice is antithetical to modern justice and it's demands of sanctity of life and fairplay in our relations with others. Life remains sacrosanct and it ought to be held as much because we cannot make or create human beings aside from following what we were taught from Adam to do to beget a child. In Nigeria prominent people had had to be assassinated with the perpetrators at large, still walking around free in the society whose law enforcement agencies are incompetent and ill-equipped to fight crime. Chief Bola Ige, the Cicero, the sitting Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation under President Obasanjo was cruelly killed by hired assassins in his bedroom few years ago and up until today nothing has been heard about his killers or the motive behind the killing. Funso Williams, Ayo Daramola from Ekiti (whom we know was killed for political reasons by Ayo Fayose and his marauding gang of killers) Dele Giwa, Godwin Agbroko and many others had variously been killed by forces no one has identified thus far. Just recently Mrs Oluwatoyin Olusesan who went to Government Day Secondary School, Gandu in Gombe State up north to invigilate an islamic class exams was brutally lynched by irate islamic fundamentalists who accused her of desecrating the holy koran. The woman, a christian teacher from Ogun State, unwittingly threw out some books siezed from a pupil whom she suspected came into the exam hall with the books to cheat with; but the holy koran was among the books the poor woman threw away and before she could know the enormity of her 'crime' against islam she was crudely hacked to death. These Islamic insane aggressors in their youthfullness may not have known that in a decent society what they did amounted to grevious assault on life! That particular gruesome episode represented the very height of dispensation of Kangaroo justice and mob action which should not go unpunished. The delinquents that perpetrated the heinous act ought not to be among decent citizens. You see Islam and islamic adherents preach peace but their hearts are boiling with intolerance and hatred. Religious zealotry becomes the name of the game. If a muslim were to throw away a copy of the holy Bible unknowingly down south I believe nothing would have been done to him/her. Before that in Kano few years ago citizen Gideon Akaluka was forcefully removed from prison by a fanatic mob that accused him of desecrating the holy koran. And in a most despicable manner, the irate mob beheaded him, hung the head on a stick and danced round the ancient city of Kano with it shouting allahu akbar! Extra-judicial killings in Nigeria has attained a dangerous level where critical questions ought to be directed at the authorities whose duty it is to protect lives and properties of Nigerians. With the general elections around the corner methinks that what is now uppermost in the minds of our political leaders is how to retain power or make sure their cronies or lackeys clinch power at various levels. If those in the Northern part of Nigeria equates the life of a human to that of cow or goat they slaughter at will for their scarifices we in the south hold life dear and value same. The northern islamic attack dogs must be told in clear terms to learn how to be civilised in matters that should ordinarily be resolved without tension or sentiments. Enough of their fundamentalist inclinations; no one particular ethnic group or region or religion has a monopoly of violence over and above others. Respect for one and all ought to be mutually reciprocated in the spirit of one nation one destiny. ------------ About the author: Sunny Chris Okenwa is a U-K contributor based in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire. Email: soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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