THERE is so much significance attached to money by virtually every segment of the society today that its pursuit, recovery and use are often associated with conduct suggestive of diminished humanity and a loss of the capacity to act right. It is the case, and sadly so, that everyone tends to be willing to do literally anything not just to make money but also to pursue its recovery when it is missing, whether temporarily or permanently. And in a recent incident involving the authorities of St. Joseph’s parish in Korinya, Koshisha Local Government Area of Benue State and Yarkwan Aondoakaa, an altar boy in the parish, a case of missing funds strangely brought out the vilest conduct from the former. The sordid narrative was that the fund raised by the congregation of St. Joseph’s parish for a seminarian who had just completed his apostolic work in the parish was discovered to be missing after the event. Meanwhile, the proceeds of the fundraising exercise were reportedly given to Yarkwan, a minor, to keep until after the event. The disappearance of the money began the commencement of the brutalisation of the altar boy ostensibly to extract confessions from him. And he did confess to stealing N3,000 from the money estimated at more than N200,000 but he insisted that he did not know how the balance got missing.
The parish’s authorities, including the elders, were not satisfied with his confession and they allegedly administered corporal punishment on and severely tortured Yarkwan, engaged a third party referenced as Livestock Guards to brutalise and take him to a place called Golgotha where local thieves are allegedly burnt alive. Yarkwan had to endure the dehumanization until two weeks later when the real culprit, another 12-year-old altar boy, confessed to stealing the money and spending the bulk of it on the purchase of toys. This other altar boy had just N10,000 left of the money. However, if the apprehension of the real thief marked the end of brutal punishment for Yarkwan, it did not stop him and his parents from liability for the larceny as the authorities allegedly told them to refund half of the missing money, though the thief had been apprehended!
By reason of the brutality he was subjected to by irresponsible adults, 14-year-old Yarkwan may have been scarred for life. That was patently avoidable. No child should be dehumanised under any circumstances. While we do not support theft by anyone, whether adult or minor, we also frown on brutality as it is beastly and lawless. The picture of the victim’s lacerated body arising from vicious flogging with horsewhip and other forms of torture will break any parent’s heart. It is gory, even as the barbarous act represents the height of child abuse from an unusual quarter. Yarkwan was reportedly taken to Golgotha where suspected local thieves were allegedly executed without lawful trial, and his tormentors even put a tyre round his neck, perhaps to drive the fear of his impending incineration in him! Why would anyone go to such a horrible length just to make a minor confess to a wrongdoing? What kind of message is a church that utilises a torture chamber passing to the rest of the society? Exposing a child to such horror as Golgotha shows a dark underpinning in the operations of St. Joseph’s parish. Why resort to alleged questioning of suspects via Golgotha? When has the church become a court of law to determine what fate should befall suspects?
It is most unconscionable, unlawful and criminal for anyone to resort to self-help while seeking redress for wrongdoing. Or is the church trying to create a parallel state? Why did the church find it difficult to subject itself to the rule of law by approaching the appropriate agencies of the state to intervene in the case? Has it forgotten that the Good Book expressly instructs believers to subject themselves to the earthly authorities? How does Golgotha in the context of the instant case relate to the central message of the Cross? Is it not a mockery of the Golgotha in the Bible where, in the face of extreme agony, Jesus Christ still sought God’s forgiveness for his traducers and killers? Or is the church saying that there is no forgiveness within its ranks?
There is also the question of the propriety of a church keeping its money, even if temporarily, with a minor. Indeed, what kind of church keeps money with minors working as altar boys? Is the church aware of its limited rights under the law in the event of defalcation, as in the instance case? Or was it the realisation of the fact that it could not have validly entered into a contract, express or implied, with a minor that made the authorities to make a recourse to self-help? Whatever is the case, this church is in breach of the law and morality, and it has inadvertently projected itself as a bad advertisement for Christendom. Certainly, the alleged conduct of the clergy and laity of St. Joseph’s parish epitomised by the savage treatment of Yarkwan is uncivilised, unchristian-like and capable of scaring people away from the church instead of attracting new members to its fold, which is the central purpose of any church in the first place.
Worse still, the judgment allegedly given by the elders, wherein Yarkwan’s parents were allegedly still asked to refund a substantial portion of the missing money even when the truth had surfaced, shows that they are demented creatures lacking any sense of justice or fairness. And they must have their day in court. Therefore, we urge the police to launch a painstaking inquiry into this horrible incident. Also, the revelation that a notorious, self-help mechanism represented by Golgotha exists in the vicinity of the incident should be investigated. Benue State does not need a venue where extra-legal liquidation of suspects is allegedly carried out by certain malefactors. And anyone found to have breached the law should be punished within the ambit of the law. It is time the system began to severely sanction leaders who are ordinarily supposed to be epitomes of morality and observance of the rule of law, but who by their conduct have chosen to point the society in the direction of decadence and anarchy.
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