THE recent senseless killing of an unharmed, mentally-ill undergraduate, Chigozie Chideofor, in Ojo, Lagos State is a new low in Nigeria’s dastardly record of mob justice. Such killings should prick public conscience and awaken negligent security agents to their duty of protecting lives and property. All those who had a hand in the death of Chideofor, 23, should be identified and made to face the full wrath of the law. This should be the starting point in stamping out the dastardly culture.
Chideofor is just one in a lengthy list of victims of misguided killer mobs. According to reports, Chideofor, who lived with a mental condition, and a friend were asleep in their residence. That night, he suffered a relapse, left the room and wandered around. He strayed into a neighbourhood, where he was mistaken for a robber and arrested. Efforts by his friend, who raced to the scene to explain his condition, were rebuffed by the mob.
Instead of handing him over to the police to investigate and ascertain his identity, Chideofor was savagely beaten. Managing to escape despite his injuries, he jumped desperately into another compound, where he was again seized. This time, his fate was sealed.
He was hacked down with cutlasses. By the time his family was alerted and reached the scene, it was too late. He was taken to a hospital, where he died. Another promising life cut down in its prime. Denied protection and care in his illness, his fellow citizens ganged up to murder him, effectively terminating his dreams and plunging his family into sorrow.
Nigeria is receding to the Stone Age. Innocent lives are being wasted by bloodthirsty hordes arrogating to themselves the roles of judge, jury, and executioner. Such barbarity should have no place in a country governed by laws.
In May, a sound engineer, David Imoh, was lynched by a group of lawless motorcyclists in Lekki, Lagos State over a N100 dispute. In June, a suspected motorcycle thief was also beaten to death and his corpse abandoned on the highway in Magboro, Ogun State. There were at least 10 reported lynchings in July across the country, including the burning of three suspected Point-of-Sale thieves in Aba, Abia State. In August, a mentally-unstable man was falsely accused of abducting children through diabolic means in Okene, Kogi State. He was burnt to death before everyone realised the mob action was triggered by fake news. A news report stated that in the last 18 months, more than 158 Nigerians have been killed by mobs.
While citizens have an obligation to assist law enforcement by reporting crimes and effecting ‘citizen’s arrest’ in the absence of security agents, nobody has the right to kill. Under the law, every suspect is presumed innocent until otherwise determined by a court of law. Arrested suspects should be handed over safely to the police. Lynching is murder, punishable by death upon conviction by a court.
Tragically, experience has shown that most of the people who fall victim to mob action are innocent. A Lagos dispatch rider, Williams Tadule, was almost burnt to death in March 2022 after being falsely accused of kidnapping a 10-month-old baby found with him. Police investigation later established that the baby’s mother, a relative of Tadule, handed over the weeping child to him to pacify. A 53-year-old woman was also stripped naked and stoned in June 2022 in Mushin, Lagos, after she was accused of making a child disappear. After she was rescued, the bizarre allegation was found to be false.
They were lucky to live to tell the story. Many others did not. Four students of the University of Port Harcourt, aka Aluu 4, were burnt to death after being falsely accused of theft in Aluu community, Rivers State in October 2012. Destitute and psychiatric patients living with amnesia or dementia have been brutally executed by superstitious mobs who falsely accuse them of kidnapping or witchcraft. Some were accused of making some persons’ manhood disappear!
The rights to life, fair hearing and movement are sacrosanct. Mob action violates these.
Mob action is a symptom of a corrupt and failing criminal justice system. Many Nigerians have lost confidence in the ability of the police to prosecute suspects. Often, hardened criminals are let off the hook and they return to harm those behind their arrests. The police must invest resources in investigation, prosecution and conviction of suspects. According to the United Nations, a population’s mistrust of the judiciary leads to impunity and engenders mob action.
Mob justice can partly be prevented by effective 24-hour security patrols. With police visibility in volatile neighbourhoods, they will neutralise extrajudicial killings, which take some time to execute. Where it is difficult to disperse blood-thirsty mobs, reinforcements should be called in. The police should also open emergency lines for people to report ongoing mob actions.
Law enforcement should be harsh on people who participate in mob attacks. Impunity is fostered when culprits are not prosecuted. There are very few cases of arrests and convictions of such suspects in Nigeria. In Georgia, USA, three white men on February 23, 2020, pursued a jogger, Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man, and shot him dead. They were arrested, prosecuted and given double life sentences each. That is the right way to run a society.
CCTV cameras should be deployed on highways and other public places. Laws mandating corporate organisations to instal CCTVs on their premises should be passed.
Mob justice is misplaced civic action. In other parts of the world, thousands of people mobilise to confront elected public officials for not delivering on their campaign promises. Instead of organising lynch mobs, Nigerians should properly redirect their energy; march to the offices of their local government chairmen and the constituency offices of state and federal legislators to demand good roads, potable water, quality education and good governance.
Faith-based organisations, traditional rulers and community development associations should sensitise their people to the consequences of mob actions. Government and the police should demonstrate zero tolerance for mob justice.
