Jungle justice or mob action is the act where people take laws into their hands and lynch a suspect.
It is a case of disregard for the rule of law which makes people to stone, burn or beat a suspect to death without following due process.
Two wrongs don’t make a right and at least, a criminal caught in the very act of committing a crime should naturally have his day in court and is considered innocent until proven otherwise.
The sad part of jungle justice is that some people take delight in carrying out this nefarious act while some even see the act as entertainment by taking photographs and video recordings of such scenes.
Jungle justice has become rampant because people believe that if the suspect is handed over to the police or other security agencies, they will find a way of escaping justice.
However, the more jungle justice continues, the more the country breeds more hardened criminals.
For instance, an alleged notorious killer gang in Ikorodu, Lagos state known as Badoo gang, killed a whole family, raping women and even cutting out unborn babies from their mother’s wombs.
In such cases, many will quickly say any member of the gang caught should by lynch, beaten to death or burnt alive.
The painful aspect of jungle justice is that suspects are actually innocent or sometimes a case of mistaken identity.
For instance, the case of four young students of the university of Port Harcourt who were lynched on allegation of being armed robbers is still fresh in mind as it later turned out that they were set up by somebody who owed one of them money and in the process of trying to collect their money back, they were attacked and killed.
Recently in Ebonyi state, there was a case of a 10-year-old boy, Ifeanyi, who was thrown into a fire for allegedly stealing a small measure of uncooked rice in a market.
When people take laws into their hands in a society, they basically express the idea that state institutions of law and order are dysfunctional and lack trust or confidence in their judgement.
In other climes, when a crime is committed, the chances that the perpetrators will be caught and brought to justice are high, but in Nigeria, nobody is caught and the perpetrators roam about free and even taunt their victims in some cases.
It is necessary that Nigerians desist from this act and have confidence in the authorities saddled with the act of ensuring law and order in the country so as to ensure peace and orderliness.
Security agencies should be alive to their responsibility for the citizens to build trust in them.
There should be stiffer penalty for the people who engage in jungle justice.
To this end, there must be fair quick dispensation of justice to engender public confidence in the judiciary.
The police must be thorough while investigating crime and ensure that suspects have their day in court to prevent jungle justice.
There must be public enlightenment to educate people on the dangers of mob justice as it can lead to anarchy.
Justice delayed they is justice denied, it is imperative for the police and judiciary to be more proactive in the administration of criminal justice system to ensure public order and sustainable peace for the rapid development of the nation.
Rasheedah Makinde
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