A MEPHISTOPHELIAN SEASON OF JUNGLE JUSTICE

In suitable allusion to the holy book, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.” True to that verse, we have had among many, a season of pension scams, a season of electoral robbery, a season of abduction in the South, a season of open letters. In a never ending sub-division is the season of petrol scarcity, party cross-carpeting is not left out while Bomb blast and school girls abduction has joined the fray. And now, we present to you, the season of jungle justice.

Recent time has not been good for strangers or anyone with a unit of insanity. People who seem to tarry or look mentally deranged have heavily been victims of mob attacks. Although, the trend is nothing new, having come back to public gear in the era of Clifford Orji, yet, it has been sparing and the cases evidential. But recent weeks have witnessed a surge. The development as a matter of fact did not just become viral. It is an aftermath of a pent up fury. After a series of unacceptable mob attacks, the Ibadan Soka house of horror was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back, re-igniting viciousness in a people struggling to survive nationwide hard times and inducing them to retort to unlawful infliction of gory nemesis having had a brim-full of insufferableness.

In fairness, whoever visited the Soka forest or got a glimpse of the dreadfulness at the slaughter house have a predisposition to nurture a pint of vengeance and lose sight of the law especially in a nation with a policing system below par. The tale of a frantic call by a commercial cyclist to his kinsmen which triggered the hunt that led to the discovery of the human abattoir was the saving grace. For survivors and their families, the phone call is a breakthrough, but for the receiver and the colleagues who joined in the search, the resounding voice of the young man will continue to haunt them. The consciousness that the victim – in pursuit of a livelihood when he got enwombed in the kidnappers’ den – is decomposing away in a purported underground cell following their inability to safe him could be eternally traumatizing. Of course, it would take more than civil words to dissuade such from vindictively taking their pound of flesh at the slightest chance.

This vividly explains the consequential simultaneous onslaught on the mentally retarded in the city of Ibadan after the Soka incident. It got so rampant that a mad woman in a part of the city reportedly noticed a group staring at her and quickly stretched out her baggage for a search. Other states are not spared in this orgy of retribution. In Osogbo, the Osun state capital, luck ran against three kidnappers as they were burnt to death by irate youths at Ayetoro, Plantation and Igbona areas. A day earlier, one of the kidnappers who escaped being killed following timely intervention of the police was eventually burnt to death. There was a preposterous tale of one who dressed as if he was mad but boarded Okada, carrying a crying baby in his bag at Akindeko Market area.

At the Iyana Egbado village in Ewekoro end of Ogun state, another kidnappers’ den was discovered when underclothes of victims, mostly of women were found in a mad man’s rest place. The most recent was the burning of three suspected abductors at Sango Ota. Kwara state has witnessed its unwholesome share of the lawlessness. At least five suspects had been set ablaze by irate mobs without trial and conviction in different areas. It got so alarming the state police commissioner ordered the use of fire arms against perpetrators.

As judicious as this may seem to perpetrators, the basis for tagging someone a kidnapper is inadequate and worrisome. The premise that some are found in possession of phone scrap or raw cash is amply short of logic. While the possession of such could be a lead, it must be noted that mental disability does not mean utter inhumanness in all cases. As Jean Cocteau reasoned, the extreme limit of wisdom is what the public call madness. In other words, there is always some reason in madness while “too much sanity,” – as the mob portray – “may be madness.” Though, not at all permitted under the law, not all who partake in unleashing terror on suspected kidnappers have a motive for doing so. On several occasions, a large percentage only execute their penchant for violence which defines the rationale behind the barbarism today known as the Ejigbo Pepper Sodomy.

More tellingly is the fact that most victims are only of circumstances. Giving that it is natural to suspect, it is equally essential to verify to the letter every criminal charges such that an innocent does not suffer unduly, that being an obligation largely on the desk of law enforcement agents. Hasty conclusion has unfortunately led to the death of many victims who were not thoroughly investigated before judgement was meted out. As the Kwara state Police Public Relation Officer, Ajayi Okasanmi said, of the numerous cases of mob attacks in Kwara, none has been empirically verified to be founded.

Again, there is every tendency to instigate man against man in pursuit of subjective vengeance. Taking laws into ones hands is nothing but a pointer to anarchy and a miscarriage of justice. It not only prove inimical to the course of justice and fair hearing but sends an ominous signal to the society. What else will an underage who sees the fatal molestation of a fellow human make of such unpunished illegality?

In the quest to combat the rising spate of lynching, Kwara CP, Mr Ambrose Aisabor recently warned the public to desist from such and ordered his men to use firearms in subsequent instances. That itself has drawn disapproval from the public who sees it as harsh and anti-people. But then, it may be the urgent approach at the moment. The face-off with the police by irate youths, mostly okada riders who resisted the handing over of a robbery suspect some months ago around Unity area of Ilorin is an affront on the law – one capable of necessitating such radical action. The argument that criminals are rarely made to face the music remains an issue to be addressed but not one that should pave way for anarchy; there could be no greater evil. To ask in the words of Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, “If the offenders caught are killed, where will evidences come to link their sponsors or allies?” That is if some are not even serial killers.

This undoubtedly indicates the light in which law enforcement agents are portrayed, the public loss of confidence in the man in uniform and the ripples of our slow judicial system. One question that has tormented the mind of many is where the law enforcement agencies are at critical periods when their assistance is needed to rescue victims? One also wonders why perpetrators have not been apprehended and punished.

The use of firearms could come to effect and perpetrators brought to book, yet there are still ifs and buts; the quest to end the act of jungle justice may remain a pipedream until the ills in the police, the judicial system and governance are addressed. As the saying goes, “Our government teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”