Ifeanyi’s death sentence on his lover

THE rate at which the society is drifting into the abyss on account of low morality and the proclivity for violence has become patently troubling. Self-help, with lucid imprints of utter disregard for the sanctity of human lives, is now the order of the day. And it is even more worrying that many believe that the trend can only worsen if the current perception of official disdain for the rule of law continues. The argument has been that if the custodian of the law does not observe it, then the society will reflect lawlessness in various shapes and forms.  For instance, a  few days ago, a self-acclaimed internet fraudster, Victor Ifeanyichukwu Orji, was nabbed by men of the Lagos  State Police Command for allegedly setting his lover, Mariam Tolani Alabi, ablaze in Ojo area of the state.

Tolani was reportedly accused of infidelity by an enraged and thoughtless Ifeanyi who doused her body in petrol and set her ablaze at his place of residence, where the two lovers cohabited before the unfortunate incident. Neighbours apprehended the suspected arsonist and murderer, but their effort to rescue his lover failed. She passed on the following day in the hospital. Thus, in a sense, Ifeanyi sentenced his girlfriend to death and carried out the execution himself because she allegedly cheated on him with another man.  Is it not an irony that Ifeanyi, a con artist and fraudster who by reason of his illicit trade epitomises disloyalty to the society, could resort to the bizarre and ghoulish action owing to unmet expectations of loyalty from his lover?

The veritable question is whether Ifeanyi himself is loyal. Is he trusty to the society as a yahoo boy?  That is why it is somewhat agonizing that a teenage felon who has embraced twisted and warped values and rebelled against standard moral codes and decency has the temerity to demand faithfulness or fidelity from anyone. This is a virtue that the delinquent clearly lacks, and there are obviously many more. While the question of loyalty itself is neither here nor there, it is a given in lawful societies that citizens are neither permitted to take the laws into their own hands nor given the liberty to impose judgement on their own. Recourse should be made to the justice system at all times to seek redress for wrongs.

Unfortunately, the 24-year-old Tolani who allegedly agreed to be a live-in lover to Ifeanyi is no longer available to tell her own side of the story. However, it is reasonable to assume that she was not a particularly upright person having chosen to live with a 19-year- old male without any legitimate means of livelihood in a N600,000/annum apartment paid for by the teenager.  But even at that, no one has the right to orchestrate the kind of gruesome fate that befell the young woman under any guise.

Without any rigorous justification, both on legal and moral grounds, Ifeanyi’s hideous action is fundamentally flawed. There was no legal basis for him to have demanded for unimpaired devotion from a lady whose relationship with him is unknown to law. They were simply co-habiting, not legally married. Even if they were lawfully married and an issue bordering on infidelity arose, it was not the place of the teenager to impose any form of sanction, let alone killing the victim. Again, the fact that murderous action was what came to the mind of the suspect after discovering his lover’s alleged unfaithfulness to him is an eloquent testament to the level of his immaturity and moral bankruptcy.

Sadly, this is the story of many a Nigerian youth whose defective informal education has combined with the negative influence of a dysfunctional society to turn them into outlaws and savages bereft of any modicum of empathy or even sympathy while carrying out criminal and morally reprehensible actions. About a month ago, Citizen Salome Acheju Abuh, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic (PDP) in Ofu Local Government Area of Kogi State was burnt alive in her house at Ochadamu town two or three days after the recent governorship election in Kogi State. The suspects arrested for carrying out the dastardly and chilling act and paraded by the police recently were youths. Though they claimed to have been sponsored by some politicians, they were the hatchet men who set a woman ablaze in a locked up house and even allegedly prevented her from escaping through one of the windows of the burning house. Ifeanyi Orji’s case is therefore not an isolated one.

The tendency towards violence and cruelty is an unenviable trend among some Nigerian youths. Indeed, many of the youths have acquired notoriety for killing or ‘using’ lovers for money rituals, sweeping innocent victims’ life-savings from their bank accounts, engaging in political thuggery and cultism, and generally presenting a grave picture of insensitive and unfeeling violent scoundrels. This is a sordid narrative that must necessarily change by way of reorientation and moral rearmament at all levels of leadership: family, religious, traditional and governmental. Otherwise, today’s adults will end up handing over the society to some sub-human muggers and hoodlums.  Meanwhile, Mr. Orji must be made to pay for his crime to serve as a deterrent to many of his ilk and those who may be planning to tread the same path.