OFTEN in this country, chiefly on account of the dismal failure of critical organs of the Nigerian State, criminals hunt down innocent and law-abiding citizens, demonstrating their perverse belief that might is right. Time and again, the criminals torture and kill innocent citizens, often for the flimsiest of reasons. One such tragic incidents occurred on Friday, June 6, during the Eid Mubarak festivities when miscreants at Ifo market in Ogun State asked traders to pay an illegal levy put at ₦1500 each, or risk threat to life and limb. Sadly, a trader who did not even resist the outlaws but merely asked for time to raise the money, as she had just opened her shop and was yet to make any sales, met a most gruesome end at their hands. The victim, Mrs. Blessing Eze was stabbed in the chest and died of the stab wounds. According to a trader in the market, “The incident happened when some touts began taxing traders over the Eid Mubarak festival. Each trader was asked to pay ₦1500. On getting to the late Mrs Eze, she told them she didn’t have the money as of the time they came, and pleaded that they should come back. As the louts that they are, they started destroying her goods, during which she “dragged” one of them and asked him to arrange her goods properly and come back. “She said she would pay, but she didn’t have the money at that time because she had not sold anything. That’s how one of them stabbed her on the chest, which later led to her death.”
Predictably, the incident threw the market into tension, and the case was not helped by the ethnic identity of the victim, an Igbo woman. In protest, Igbo traders put their shops under lock and key. Happily, the police subsequently announced the arrest and arraignment of suspects following the incident. The Divisional Police Officer of the Ifo Police Division, SP Kamorudeen Olabisi, disclosed that five suspects had been arrested in connection with the case. Olabisi, who revealed this at a stakeholders’ meeting comprising government officials, security operatives, traditional rulers, market leaders, political leaders, the representative of the Olu of Ifo, transport union leaders, the Igbo community, and other key stakeholders and held at the Winnas Hotel, Ifo, said: “I’m assuring you that all those who took part in killing the woman will be arrested. “Already, five of them have been arrested and are on their way to Ilaro prison.” Olabisi urged the traders to report all forms of criminality in the market to the police for urgent action to be taken. On his part, the Chairman of Ifo Local Government, Idris Olalekan Kusimo, condemned the killing, describing it as a departure from the values of his peace-loving people, and vowing that the perpetrators would be brought to justice. Extending heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased and the entire Igbo community, Kusimo thanked Governor Dapo Abiodun for his timely intervention in ensuring peace in Ifo market and the entire local government area.
This case is, to say the very least, horrific. It is distressing that a law-abiding citizen struggling to eke out an existence at a local market was murdered in cold blood by criminals who never should have been given any opportunity to set foot on the market, let alone do the irreversible damage they did in this case. According to reports, the hoodlums were in the habit of treating any form of opposition like a capital offence, dispensing their version of justice at will. It is beyond saddening that a market that supposedly had formal structures of leadership, including a market leader and other organs, permitted such illegality to endure for as long as the outlaws wanted. If this was due to threats of bodily harm, the market leaders could have approached the police for help. We are, of course, not blind to the sub-text of politics that permits the existence of outlaws in markets across the country. That is why from Lagos to Osogbo, and from Enugu to Kaduna, non-state actors wield huge influence in markets and other public spaces, which regrettably have been largely ungoverned spaces for as long as anyone can remember.
We condemn the brutal murder of Mrs Blessing Eze. She did not deserve to die, and if indeed she had committed any offence, she should have been subjected to the formal processes of the law, not jungle justice. We shudder at the reality of criminals wielding the power of life and death across the country. Hardly anything illustrates the absence of state recompense so poignantly. If people like the criminals who cut down Mrs. Eze in cold blood have the audacity to assume overlordship over fellow citizens, it is because of the utter lack of consequences for egregious behaviour. As we have been keen to stress on many occasions on this page, crime can only fester in the face of impunity. If criminals knew that they faced the prospect of retribution for their dastardly conduct, the country’s crime rate would reduce drastically.
We urge the police to do an extremely thorough job on this case and ensure that the killers of Mrs Eze are prosecuted to the fullest extent allowed by law. Admittedly, in this case, the response of the Ogun State government was timely and helped to douse public tension. That is commendable. We, however, urge the government to take more than a passing interest in the present case and curb the reign of outlaws in markets and other places. Value for human life demands no less.
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