- Frustration, delayed justice, lack of faith in police also fueling menace – Stakeholders
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
The rate at which some Nigerians take laws into their hands has become a source of great worry for stakeholders.
While some critical members of the society blamed worsening jungle justice on the frustration faced by Nigerians who pass through tough times owing to economic hardship, insecurity, job losses and biting hunger, other stakeholders contended that citizens don’t report cases to the Nigeria Police for investigation and prosecution because they lack confidence in the force. They also identified delay in justice as a factor.
For some respondents, those who resort to mob action have bitterness in their hearts when they sight those they feel are wealthy and financially comfortable and want to vent their frustration on them by concocting various unsubstantiated claims.
Stakeholders are disturbed that the trend may gradually brew a class war between the Haves and the Have Nots in the society as mobs now profile rich individuals as fraudsters before killing them in gruesome manner.
Sadly, other victims of such jungle justice situations are the same commoners who have been brutally lynched because victims allegedly steal petty items.
Several cases of jungle justice have been recorded in the country since last year alone till date. The recent jungle justice was meted on a 25-year-old commercial driver, Tope Olorunfemi, who was mobbed to death in Akure, Ondo State capital.
The mob had claimed that the father of one was an internet fraudster popularly known as “yahoo boy” but the family of the deceased and some social workers had refuted the claim.
Also last week, in a very traumatising manner, a 500-level student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Okoli Ahize Chizoputam, was mobbed to death by his fellow undergraduates for allegedly stealing a mobile phone.
The Point sought the opinions of several stakeholders, including traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society organisations, lawyers, security experts, psychologists, and parents, among others, and they expressed divergent views on the causes and implications of the trend while not leaving out the way forward.
MANY NOW BELIEVE IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO AMASS LEGITIMATE WEALTH IN NIGERIA – ACTIVIST
A civil rights activist, Oluyemi Fasipe, said it had become a “crime” for young people to be rich in Nigeria, lamenting that the rate of profiling of those who appeared financially comfortable was disturbing.
Fasipe, who brought the jungle justice in Akure to the public glare through his social media platform and also wrote an open letter to the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, on the matter, posited that there was a looming war between the rich class and those classified as the poor in the country, owing to frustration and brainwashed mentality.
He debunked claims that the driver who was lynched in Akure was a fraudster, saying that the incident happened in the victim’s neighbourhood.
He said some of the attackers knew the family of the deceased, adding that Olorunfemi was set ablaze in the presence of his parents and younger sibling by the mob, who shunned entreaties from the family.
Giving insights into the gory mob killing of the young driver in Akure, Fasipe said,
“The situation was that of an accident. Olorunfemi had an accident and he was being chased by a group of okada riders.
While the driver was trying to escape the scene, he hit another okada rider before he was caught. They profiled him as a yahoo boy because he was a young man that was riding a private car.
“The coffin they claimed they saw inside his (Olorunfemi) car was a piggy box called “kolo” in Yoruba. There was nothing inside his vehicle that could make anyone feel that the boy was a ritualist. Like I wrote in my letter to Governor Akeredolu, this jungle justice happened because of frustration and probably the hardship that these okada riders face and this makes them feel that probably, it is almost impossible for people to live fine in the same country.
“Probably, they don’t have the same opportunity. At the scene of the mob action, some people were saying that if anyone was driving a certain car and probably dressing so expensive, then the person must have involved himself in fraud or rituals. The car that the boy was driving was a 2019 Toyota Camry. Is that what yahoo boys drive? I mean as old as that car is? And I confirmed from the parents that the car was bought three years ago for the boy by the parents.”
“The parents said when he finished school, there was no job and that was why they bought the car for him to do Uber transport in Lagos three years ago. The boy was an active Bolt driver, he only came to Akure for the burial of his grandmother. He was just profiled and killed by ignorant, bitter and wicked people. When the first accident happened, he (victim) hit the first person and they started pursuing him and the pursuit led to the accident of the other man. About two or three people hit during the accident have been receiving treatment in the hospital but they are alive,” he said.
Revealing how the parents of Olorunfemi witnessed his cruel killing, Fasipe said, “Majority of the people who mobbed Olorunfemi to death were okada riders and some jobless people around his neighbourhood. His mother mentioned some of them. The mother, father, younger sister witnessed the killing of Olorunfemi.
“They could not just help it. These people were armed with planks and stones. The mother saw them hitting the boy with big stones. When the father came, they almost burnt the father if not for the police that took the father away. The unfortunate thing is that it’s their own neighbourhood and some of those who carried out the attack were neighbours.”
He said two of those who mobbed Olorunfemi had been arrested by the police because their faces showed in a video recorded at the scene of the attack.
Fasipe condemned the rising pattern of mob reaction and action across the country, saying it was a potential class war between the Haves and Have Nots.
“I hope Government will act because I got a call from the Ondo Sate Deputy Governor who acknowledged the letter and promised that the government would do something. Mentality problem is one of the factors that predispose citizens to this jungle justice. We are not in a lawless country and we can’t take laws into our hands. The best thing to do is to apprehend and hand over to the police and then do follow-up,” he said.
INSENSITIVE GOVERNMENT, PARENTS BREED ANARCHY – TRADITIONAL RULER
A traditional ruler, Oba Abdulazeez Muideen Olaniyi, Ajagungbade Oodua of Egbedi land in Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State, blamed the failure of parents to give their children sound moral upbringing for the rise in jungle justice.
The monarch also said government’s insensitivity to the hunger and other plights of Nigerians was breeding anarchy in the country.
Oba Olaniyi said, “It’s the way parents train their children that they will behave in the larger society. Parents who ensure that their children get sound moral upbringing and are dedicated to the way of God, would be happy to see their children act these good traits in the public. No child with the fear of God and values will ever join a mob to beat anyone, not to talk of lynching them.
“If parents train their children well in the way of God by either bringing them up in Church or Mosque and with sound education, we won’t be seeing all these ugly events of jungle justice and killings here and there.
“Also, government has a lot to do in ensuring that social vices are curbed in the society. If government provides jobs for teeming youths, make education compulsory for all children and reduce poverty, the level of frustration and ignorance in the society would be reduced.”
“You don’t expect good behaviour from people who have given up on becoming better people in the society. Hunger can make one do the unthinkable. Those who engage in Yahoo do that because they lack values and good upbringing and ditto those who take laws into their hands to serve justice,” the monarch stressed.
