I remember it
like yesterday; pictures and videos being shared of Ugonna Obuzor, Toku
Lloyd, Chiadika Biringa, and Tekena Elkanah as they were brutally
murdered by a mob on October 5, 2012 in Aluu, a village in Rivers State,
Nigeria. The young men, all friends, first sons of their parents and
students at the University of Port Harcourt,were accused of theft.
Those
images still haunt me today. Women, men and children on the side
cheering, and some helplessly looking on, to the merciless jamming of
hard wood into the skulls and bones of a defenseless group of young men
who were never given the chance to speak for themselves or the option of
an arrest.
It
is appalling how unbothered we all are despite the countless mob
lynching that occur in our country. The seeming lack of political will
to address this grave issue which has taken the life of so many of our
loved ones and our collective silence is, in my view, an endorsement of
widespread vigilantism.
Chiadika,
Toku, Tekena and Ugonna were, like you and I, young people with dreams
of living life to its fullest potential and contributing greatly to
Nigeria’s development. They, their families and loved ones would never
envisage that their young lives would be snuffed out by stick and
stone-wielding vigilantes. Never for a second would they have imagined
being stripped naked, beaten, dragged through mud and have concrete
slabs dropped on their heads as a spectacle of people’s idea of justice
in a village whose name (Aluu) in Igbo, loosely translates to
“abomination”.
This
morning there was another grotesque post on Facebook about a young man
who was lynched in Ondo State, in South-Western Nigeria. The author of
the post called it the “End of a Gay” as if to justify the senseless and
savage killing of his fellow compatriot because he was or was perceived
to be non-heterosexual. It seemed that his post was a warning to other
gay, lesbian and bisexual people in Nigeria who should know that
homosexuality is criminalized up to 14 year jail sentence and, he will
therefore exact his own form of justice.
These
stories expose the crisis of jungle justice that is prevalent in many
communities across Nigeria. They, in part, point to a situation of
people taking justice into their hands because of, inter alia, the lack
of trust in the law enforcement and justice systems.
As
a child growing up in Lagos, the sight of people being wounded/harmed
without hesitation at a mere scream of the word OLE (thief) is not new
to me. This has traumatized me and brings back those frightening
experiences every time I see pictures and videos of someone being
lynched. At the time, you were only left with the gory images in your
mind as you try to recollect and narrate the incident to your friends.
Unfortunately, I didn’t realise the psychological harm witnessing these
incidents can cause.
The
level of impunity that the perpetrators of these mob violence enjoy is
worrying. You would think there would be more arrests and charges being
handed down given that evidence of these incidents is so readily
accessible. Why has justice not been served on the perpetrators of the
Aluu lynching and many others? I worry that this might be the case of
Akinifessi in Ondo State as well. Sadly, these incidents have not had
much impact on us. Consequently, rather than cause empathy and sympathy
the perpetrators are often feted with endorsements such as the attracted
vitriolic comments suggesting that Akinifessi deserved to die for
presumably being gay.
It
is high time we accept that jungle justice on any ground affects all of
us. Anyone can be the next victim. You might be caught in a situation
like Tekena’s sister who watched her brother being murdered right in
front of her while her scream and pleas for mercy yielded no effect on
the angry mob that killed him.
It
is time for President Buhari to address this issue. He must deal with
the challenges of the law enforcement and justice systems. We cannot
continue to watch families and communities being torn apart. Buhari, as a
champion of change, needs to lead an effort to improve the necessary
systems and protect the sanctity of life.
Written by Stephen Chukwumah
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