Jungle Justice
By: Honour Dahunsi
Tags: Nigeria, Jungle Justice, Justice, Life Lessons, Society

I had gone out during the day with my childhood friend. It was her birthday. So we went to the cinema to watch a movie. After the movie we went to her place to discuss how to improve our lives for the next year. I returned home in the evening. Prepared to make dinner for my family. The time was around 7 pm. I was making semovita which I dislike because of the way I sweat while making it. While turning the semovita to get a smooth texture, I heard sounds from the kitchen window. Initially, I felt it was the children in my estate throwing bangers because of the Christmas season so I ignored the sounds. The next time I heard the sounds, it was serious. I could hear women shouting 'ehh! God! Somebody don die o!'

I ran out of the house. I found my dad heading for the gate to know what was happening. A crowd had gathered outside the gate leading to our street. The owners of shops around were seen closing their shops frantically. The whole place was in a mess. People stood talking to one another concerning what had happened.

From what I gathered, a bricklayer had taken a bike to a site he was working on. While working on the site, the bike got missing. Apparently,the bricklayer had told the bikeman to wait and the bikeman left his bike and went somewhere else. The bike was no where to be found when he returned. The bricklayer was still working on the site as at that time. As the Bricklayer was about leaving the estate. He stopped to buy meat from a meat seller at the front of the estate. All of a sudden, he was stopped by a group of men. Twenty in number. They accused him of stealing the bike. They immediately slapped him and started beating him.

I thought jungle justice used to be a thing of the past. But I thought wrong.

These men beat the daylight out of him. By the time he was unconscious they left him and even threatened to kill anyone who tried to save him. Before ambulance came, the man had died.

To think that you would falsely accuse a person and carry out jungle justice on him is just so saddening. These group of men are Hausas. In the estate they are known as 'abokis' or 'almajiris' They occupy a small part of the estate and they are many. There is a fence which separates them from the major estate. All efforts to take them out of the estate has proved abortive. They are known to be vicious and dangerous. They are rash and do not consider the effects of their actions. The annoying part of this story is that, when they had killed the man, these men shouted 'one Nigeria!’. Why will these people think that killing your fellow citizen makes you patriotic? What exactly runs through their minds? Does it make them right or does it return the stolen bike? How does killing a person resolve the issue on a ground? This instead creates another problem.

Jungle Justice

Jungle Justice is a form of street Justice. It occurs where a person gets caught in an act or is mistaken to be a perpetrators of a crime committed gets lynched, maimed or even killed if there are no quick efforts to salvage the situation by law enforcement agencies. Jungle Justice has never been a solution but it rather it worsens the situation. Generally in Nigeria, the events of mob action or jungle justice have shown that the police institution and the legal systems do not enjoy legitimacy(acceptance) from the people.The strong indicators of relative socio-economic inequality while assessing justice and public trust in the police tends to be problematic. Thus, in the wake of any security threats, the least chance people get, people prefer to harm or lynch the suspected person or persons without due recourse for security personnels to take charge. This is clearly a direct violation of human rights by taking illegal actions against a suspected criminal whom the law presumes innocent until proven guilty.

The inadequacies in the swift response of Nigeria security officials , especially the Nigeria Police when called upon to rescue a crime scene has put into the public hands the legitimacy of people through informal policing of their environs which often times leads to jungle justice. The Nigeria Police Force who have the responsibility of protecting the lives and properties of citizens have failed to be consciously developed, funded and maintained.

The Bricklayer

I wonder what was in the mind of the bricklayer when they carried out jungle justice on him. How his cries and shouts fell on deaf ears . How he never knew that he was going to leave this world that night and in that manner. It makes me wonder the thin line between death and life. We actually hold our lives so dearly despite the fact that in a split second we could die. Indeed, the transience of human life.

I believe that he is in a better place. He is free from the troubles of this world. A safer place, safe and free from the fear of just living and thriving.

Nigeria is in a mess

As a Nigerian I am frustrated. As a lady, when I go out I am conscious of what I wear so that I don’t get harassed, molested or raped. To think that I should also be concerned about how not to be in a situation where jungle justice can be carried out on me. Because most of the time it is not really about how reputable you are in the community but what the mobs say about you at that very moment. Stories of kidnappings, and missing persons flying about and the little efforts the government does about them.

As a Person

I am living in fear within the estate. People keep saying the 'almajiris' are like a time bomb within the estate. They could get wild and become so dangerous. I do hope and pray that the community does something fast about them. Now I live with the fear for my life in my own country. I can’t go out and come back when I like. At school, I try to get to my hostel before seven o’clock because I really don’t know what could befall me at night. So I choose to get home early. The roads to school are not safe. I am scared to my wits. During this last break I have seen several accidents on the road and yet the Governor is not doing anything about it. To think that the lives of students and lecturers are at risk and it does not bother them. So alarming.

Maybe Hope

Sometimes I like to think there is a hope for a better Nigeria. At the same time a part of me thinks that hope is a long shot towards total freedom. Maybe better days are ahead. Maybe a change of every aspect in the country is really going to happen someday. Just maybe. But I think all we can do is hope. What other choice is left for us than to hope. Hope is settling for something to happen which at the moment has not happened. To me, it works in the unknown. We really don’t know when it will happen. This better Nigeria we hope for, maybe it can happen five years from now or ten years or twenty years. But certainly not tomorrow. Tomorrow, is for the Bricklayer. The process for justice for the bricklayer begins. Hopefully the community reports the case to the Police. Hopefully these men are brought to book and justice is served.