This week on law matters, we shall continue from our last topic which had to do with mob justice, and what the law has to say about such. Last week, we established the fact that everyone has a right to a fair hearing in the court, and that right should not be trampled on. If you missed that edition, check it here...
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, I was about 8 and
mum was making lunch in the kitchen while I watched T.V, the house was filled with aunts and uncles who had come to visit and dad was playing host. Suddenly we heard the shouts from a large crowd on the street and instinctively we all rushed out to find out what was going on. Initially, it was hard to figure out what was happening in the midst of all the people and their different excited voices until we were able to see ahead to where the crowd had gathered around a middle aged man who was stark naked, bleeding from different parts of his body and was seriously pleading for his life, his face covered in tears/blood/sand/.
Information quickly reaching me stated that the victim of this mob action had been accused of stealing hence the inhuman treatment. He was paraded from one end of my street to the other, accompanied by area boys wielding sticks, whips or whatever they could get their hands on and not in the least hesitating to use it on the victim’s bare skin. I wanted to follow the mob but my parents were having none of it, I was directed to go into the house and took position by the window trying to see what happened next. Eventually, the mob moved from the front of our house and half-beat/half – dragged the alleged thief with them.
Mob justice is when a large angry mob takes justice into their own hands and it usually ends with someone getting beating to a pulp, paraded naked in public and even set on fire or killed. It refers to a situation in which a large disorganized crowd of people resort to violence and destruction in an attempt to ensure fairness and equity for themselves without recourse to the institutionalized public bodies entrusted with this responsibility. It’s a very
barbaric way of dispensing justice and should have no place among common folk.
Mob justice is not however unique to Nigeria and it would be unfair to characterize it as such. One infamous lynching in particular that really shocked the world and helped to spark the civil rights movement in the United States was in August 1955, when 14-year-old Emmett Till was beaten, his eyes gouged and shot in the head. His body was then thrown in the Tallahatchie River with a 70-pound cotton gin tied around his neck with barbed wire. His crime?Allegedly whistling at a white woman.
Mob action can be attributed to ineffective prosecution, a weak judicial system and evidence of a culture of
impunity. In addition, this judicial failure is prompting the security agencies to join mob action through the shoot and kill policy. Factors that contribute to the escalation of mob action include an under-resourced police personnel, growing crime rate, poor police-civilian relations as well as impatience on the part of people to wait for the law to take its course.
It was a sunny Saturday afternoon, I was about 8 and
mum was making lunch in the kitchen while I watched T.V, the house was filled with aunts and uncles who had come to visit and dad was playing host. Suddenly we heard the shouts from a large crowd on the street and instinctively we all rushed out to find out what was going on. Initially, it was hard to figure out what was happening in the midst of all the people and their different excited voices until we were able to see ahead to where the crowd had gathered around a middle aged man who was stark naked, bleeding from different parts of his body and was seriously pleading for his life, his face covered in tears/blood/sand/.
Information quickly reaching me stated that the victim of this mob action had been accused of stealing hence the inhuman treatment. He was paraded from one end of my street to the other, accompanied by area boys wielding sticks, whips or whatever they could get their hands on and not in the least hesitating to use it on the victim’s bare skin. I wanted to follow the mob but my parents were having none of it, I was directed to go into the house and took position by the window trying to see what happened next. Eventually, the mob moved from the front of our house and half-beat/half – dragged the alleged thief with them.
Later on I learnt the man was forced to drink a mixture of cement and he was left by the road to die while his insides solidified as the cement in his lungs and stomach choked him to death. That was my first
experience of mob justice and I still remember it after over 20 years.
experience of mob justice and I still remember it after over 20 years.
Mob justice is when a large angry mob takes justice into their own hands and it usually ends with someone getting beating to a pulp, paraded naked in public and even set on fire or killed. It refers to a situation in which a large disorganized crowd of people resort to violence and destruction in an attempt to ensure fairness and equity for themselves without recourse to the institutionalized public bodies entrusted with this responsibility. It’s a very
barbaric way of dispensing justice and should have no place among common folk.
Mob justice is not however unique to Nigeria and it would be unfair to characterize it as such. One infamous lynching in particular that really shocked the world and helped to spark the civil rights movement in the United States was in August 1955, when 14-year-old Emmett Till was beaten, his eyes gouged and shot in the head. His body was then thrown in the Tallahatchie River with a 70-pound cotton gin tied around his neck with barbed wire. His crime?Allegedly whistling at a white woman.
Mob action can be attributed to ineffective prosecution, a weak judicial system and evidence of a culture of
impunity. In addition, this judicial failure is prompting the security agencies to join mob action through the shoot and kill policy. Factors that contribute to the escalation of mob action include an under-resourced police personnel, growing crime rate, poor police-civilian relations as well as impatience on the part of people to wait for the law to take its course.
By Danladi Roberts
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