Monday 8 June 2015

Jungle JUSTICE is NO JUSTICE



I saw this crowd gathered and I tried to peep to know what the matter was. Behold i saw a young boy stripping off his clothes in the crowd while some were screaming ole others were busy beating him. To my amazement, there was a uniformed man present and happily watching.
Jungle justice has been prevalent in our country and instead of handing the person to the law enforcement agencies, citizens take matters into their hands which to me is very wrong.
Now in this scenario there was a law enforcement agent present and yet he stood and did nothing. Probably because he has not seen blood yet and the crowd happened to be ,more civilized than other worse scenarios.



I once read of how a woman suspected to be a Boko Haram suicide bomber was lynched in Bauchi State on the suspicion that she wanted to detonate a bomb at a market in the city. It later turned out that the woman was a mentally disturbed lady that was killed on mere suspicion.
I also have not forgotten the brutal killing of four University of Port Harcourt students by a community in Rivers State. The young boys had allegedly gone to one of their friends in the town to collect a debt owed one of them when the debtor turned on them, screaming that they were robbers.
The mob did not ask questions, neither did they hand over the boys to the police. They beat them up, striped them naked and killed them.



Now I believe today's case was not violent because of the presence of the uniformed man but I also think it was evil of them telling him to strip. You cannot be the judge and the jury at the same time.
I am of the opinion that jungle justice should be outlawed in this country. Perpetrators of such evil deeds should be made to face the wrath of the law but sadly nothing positive has come out of the case of those Four students.  Sadly the Ejigbo pepper sodomy and murder case, popularly known as Ejigbo 3 which occured in Febuary 2013 is still lingering and the accused persons fate not yet decided after all these years.
On the other hand you also understand why the citizens have given up on our judicial system and have decided to take matters into their own hands. One might even give up the ghost waiting for justice.
Nevertheless, i still maintain that Jungle justice is no justice at all but the only way we can stop it is to restore the faith of the citizens, create a better interaction with law enforcement agencies so that issues like paying money to lodge an official compliant is removed, basic human rights are respected and speedy fair hearing is giving to all.







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