Rising cases of jungle justice

I wish to call the attention of the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Ngozi Onadeko, to look into the rising trend of jungle justice and incessant cases of people taking laws into their hands. On December 3, 2021, some yet-to-be arrested youths took laws into their hands by setting one young man ablaze for the alleged theft of a mobile phone; he was roasted like a chicken around Bashorun area in Ibadan, Oyo State. Another man was set ablaze around Ashi- Bodija, Ibadan area last week Friday for allegedly turning two Bashorun Ojoo High school students into tubers of yam. This is very barbaric and unfair.

I am not condoning theft because I also lost my two mobile handsets to a thief and it cost me too much loss but I do not think that jungle justice is the right thing to do. It is a fact that the situation in the country has made many people to be frustrated, making it easy for them to get angry and act irrationally especially on allegations even when they are not substantiated.

They believe it is better to kill than hand over suspects to the police due to lack of trust in the justice system. We should however know that jungle justice is not the solution to curbing crime and this is the reason why we must campaign against the unlawful killing of alleged thieves; what if they are innocent?

Jungle justice is a form of public extrajudicial killings in Nigeria where an alleged criminal is humiliated, beaten or summarily executed by a crowd and there is rising cases of lynching across Ibadan. I expect the Oyo State government under the leadership of Engr. Seyi Makinde to set up a committee that will look into this so as to prevent future occurrence.

Jungle justice is inhuman; if cases of jungle justice are not addressed on time, innocent citizens might one day be victims due to false allegation by detractors. Section 33 of the 1999 constitution as amended gives every person the right to life, no one has the right to deprive another of life in the name of administering justice. Section 36(5) of the 1999 constitution as amended says that every person is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.

It is time for the police to declare war on those who are taking law into their hands by killing people because these irate youths can easily kill the innocent citizens of the state. One of the statutory duties of the police is to protect our lives. The police should not fold their arms and keep watching these irate youths engage in murder.

Barrister Jimoh Mumin,

Ibadan.

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