UNIPORT Murderers, Jungle Justice And National Insanity
If you've not seen the video that showed how four male students of the University of Portharcourt were killed for stealing an iPad, don't bother because you will never remain the same again after watching it. This is the summary of what happened. The boys were caught with the electronic device, stripped naked, beaten severally with logs of wood and sticks, a hefty guy mashed the head of one of the suspected thieves with a rocky stone. At a particular point, one of the guys wanted to roll out of the tire on his neck but an evidently heftier aggrieved onlooker prevented him. Petrol was brought, and the young men were set on fire alive, right in the presence of hundreds of residents of Aluu in the beautiful city of Portharcourt.
This is not the first case of jungle justice that got national attention, and it may not even be the last because setting captured suspected criminals on fire seems to have become an acceptable norm in Nigeria. Those in support of the action often state the pusillanimous attitude of the law enforcement agencies coupled with complacencies and attending bureaucratic bottlenecks as discouraging people from taking suspected criminals to police stations.
It is rather saddening that having "connections" to those that control state power or at the helms of affairs at any level of government portend superiority to the rule of law, hence aggrieved citizens often decide to adjudicate on their own. It didn't just start, it's been a while; possibly with the introduction of night watch groups popularly known as 'vigilante'.
Vigilante groups have come to stay in Nigeria although its constitution is unconstitutional, yet they are seen as complimenting the efforts of the police in keeping the streets safe. Sanely speaking, it would be expected that when the vigilante groups notice any unusual movements in the neighborhood at odd times, they would alert the police. This however is no longer the case. I've heard cases where a doctor was forced to hawk bean cakes made out of stones because he was going home at 1am; an undergraduate student going for night class in the south east was mistakenly shot; and a man whose wife was in labor got detained overnight by the overambitious vigilante operatives who despite finding shawls, gloves, baby products and other harmless things on him failed to allow him to dash to the hospital before the woman delivered the bundle of joy.
Following the societal acceptance of the arrest, detention and punishment of night crawlers by the vigilante groups, groups like OPC sprung up. Now we've lost count of the number of local security operatives in the various communities which obviously seem to have given citizens the notion that they can do as they like to perpetrators of dastard acts.
I remember the first case of public burning of criminals that I heard; it was so ridiculous to be true, and shame on any learned fellow who believed and participated in it. It was during the period when rumors spread about people losing their penises after being merely touched by someone. During this period, you couldn't talk to strangers who might say you are responsible for the loss of their manhood. In some areas in the south west, residents made several arrests and the unlucky manhood thieves were dragged to the middle of the express road, stripped naked and torched. Similar incidence repeated itself during the period when kidnapping was rampant. Many people were also set on fire.
Throughout these periods of national insanity, law enforcement officers rarely made arrests of perpetrators of such dastard acts especially the illegal executioners, a silence that also suggested the force is not actively against the act.
The jungle judiciary system still went on with allegations of criminals shot dead by the police officers. I remember serving in a secondary hospital. Almost on a daily basis, police vans brought corpses of suspected criminals who were caught and shot by the police. Yet no one raised eyebrows. It has even reached a celebrated crescendo since it is now acceptable for state police commissioners and district police officers to parade corpses of suspected criminals who were shot during gun duels with officers of the force.
This act could also be said to be the origin of the series of killings being made by the Boko Haram sect after their leader was arrested and reportedly killed while in the detention of security operatives. It is therefore not a strange incidence in Nigeria.
What is disheartening is that while illiteracy or non-comprehension of law statutes by police recruits, thugs and miscreants in the society could be said to be responsible for previous jungle justice and killings, the murder of the four students of UNIPORT in the full glare of hundreds of the so-called leaders of tomorrow is an attestation to the fact that the future of this great nation is so doomed. Pardon my cynicism.
The incidence would have taken a minimum of one hour because a larger part of the footage I saw was when the perpetrators went to get petrol. If this was the case, how come no one in the neighborhood that saw what was going on was able to call the police to intervene? What I found more disheartening were the onlookers, especially the young students who would be in their teens and early twenties and were delighted to watch human beings like them being maimed and killed over an ordinary, maybe fairly used ipad.
It brought to mind an almost similar experience I had about two years ago in Owerri. I was in the city to make arrangements for my credentials so I decided to stay with a friend who had a room in one of the private hostels. Around four in the evening, two ladies knocked on the door severally. When they entered the room, they said one of their boyfriends was angry and wanted to beat them up. So they begged to stay in the room. We agreed but few minutes later, pandemonium ensued in the hostel; it was so strong that we had to ask them to leave. Thank God we did that.
Less than 5 minutes later, a room-to-room search for the ladies was conducted. When they got to our room, the door was almost pulled down. Then I asked the angriest guy in the search team what was happening? He said the ladies stole his phone and money. He suspected they were hiding in one of the guys' rooms and he'll decisively deal with any guy in whose room the ladies were found. My heart skipped as they searched the wardrobe, bathroom….everywhere.
Then I asked myself "what if we didn't ask the ladies to leave?" We would have been well beaten, maybe set on fire just like the unlucky four UNIPORT students. This is therefore not a UNIPORT or Rivers state issue, it's a national tragedy; a colossal travesty that should be addressed right from the top to the bottom. This case is so simple to solve and may God, Sango, Obatala, Amadioha and other gods decisively deal with anyone who tries to meddle with this particular case or sweep it under the carpet.
Unlike hunger, poor health system and other conditions that exclusively affect the poor and down trodden Nigerians, jungle justice is not a respecter of anyone, the angry mobs could set anyone on fire. I learned the hard way.
Despite the fact that I was Vanguard Newspaper's Young Nigerian Making The Difference, had El-Rufai write the foreword for my book, and, for Christ sakes, I was even on national TV! Yet my fate rested in the hands of hope and hos.
While it will be difficult for the Nigerian Police Force to solve all the various cases of jungle justice, the one in Aluu is too simple to miss. Let the perpetrators be fished out and made to face the full course of law. It is only when this is done that future cases could be prevented since angry mobs would be aware of the fact that jungle justice is unacceptable. I also believe that the presidency should also be interested in this case.
It is now simple to get people killed in this country, all you need is someone shouting "thief, thief" and a dozen of gullible angry fools running in pursuit. They know how to get fuel and tires for that cause and are never feel remorse because as far they are concerned, there is nothing wrong with what they are doing.
The response to this case is also disheartening. A lady wrote "this will be a lesson to other thieves" another said "I hope these thieves go to hell". These show there are lots of people with like criminal minds. And if we don't tackle this issue now, I pity the children of Nigerian politician who knowingly or unknowingly find themselves in the midst of such bloodthirsty insane vanguards of jungle justice.
PS: Think you are man (or woman) enough? Check the video here http://t.co/xPN3Rie
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