It’s jungle justice for ritual killers

LAGOS-- Worried by the recent increases in cases of kidnapping and missing persons for alleged rituals, mobs in Lagos and neighbouring Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria have taken the laws into their own hands, setting ablaze suspected kidnappers.

Their actions have however sent some innocent victims to their graves. For example, television viewers in the country's commercial capital, were treated to a horrifying sight when a privately-owned television station showed a mob action on an 11-year-old boy who was set ablaze by an irate mob for allegedly attempting to kidnap a child in the Surulere suburb of the metropolis.

The unfortunate boy, who was beaten and hit with various dangerous objects as he was being dragged on concrete road some half a kilometer stretch near the National Stadium, was eventually set ablaze and burnt to death in front of the stadium, despite his persistent cries of innocence.

Though not happy with the activities of ritual killers, there has been an outcry from citizens and human rights organisations over the killing of the 11-year-old boy, who, they argued should have been handed over to the police for proper investigation.

''Even if the boy did what he was alleged to have done, he should have been arrested and taken to the police station. By that, proper investigations would have been carried out to unravel who sent him and if really he did what he was alleged to have done. Beating him and dragging him along the road with blood trailing him and eventually setting him ablaze is too barbaric in this age. It is condemnable,'' says Mr. Segun Aribike, a senior government worker.

But housewife, Mrs. Rose Okehi, while not supporting the killing of the boy, argues that lynching of suspected kidnappers was the only way to stop the heinous crime committed by ritual killers and armed robbers in the country.

''If people think they can kill others for rituals to get rich quick, then they deserve to be lynched publicly as a deterrent to others. But the young boy would have been forced to take them (mob) to those who sent him. In that way, the kingpins of the criminal acts would have been exposed. Kidnappers and armed robbers deserve what they are getting from the crowd now,'' Okehi said.

The lynched alleged boy-kidnapper is just one of several people who have been sent to their graves through recent mob actions on alleged kidnappers since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced it was introducing a one thousand Naira note, the highest denomination in the country.

It is generally believed in Nigeria that at the introduction of any new denomination of the currency especially higher denominations, the activities of kidnappers and ritual killers soar while cases of missing persons are daily reported at police stations. Such missing persons who could be of any age, most of who are never seen again, are believed to have been used for money-making rituals by the ritual killers who are supplied the human commodity by kidnappers for a fee.

Early this year, a wealthy businessman in Ogun State, Southwestern Nigeria was arrested by police and accused of receiving human parts for money making rituals. His accomplices, a bicycle repairer and his teenage son had narrated how they lured school children to the bush, beat their victims to death, pluck their eyes and cut off their other parts which they sold to the businessman.

Last month, a mother of three collapsed and died instantly in Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos, after a commercial motorcyclist who used to take her three children to and from school on the fateful day disappeared with the kids only for their headless bodies to be found in a shrine where the motorcyclist had sold them to ritualists.

Mrs Adia Aiyatomowa of Teddi village, Ojo a suburb of Lagos was luckier, some good Samaritans saved one of her twin toddlers from the hands of a kidnapper who feigned madness. The children were crawling in front of her house when the suspect kidnapped one of them and took to his heels but was arrested by neighbours and handed over to the police.

No fewer than 12 suspected kidnappers have been lynched and burnt alive in Lagos and Ogun states since mobs took it out on suspected kidnappers about two months ago.

The mob action was first ignited after some suspected kidnappers were early in October discovered at a camp at Dalemo area of Sango along the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway where ritual victims were allegedly being held and killed. School uniforms of their young victims were also recovered at the scene.

In the 'jungle justice' action two men were lynched in Abeokuta the Ogun State capital for allegedly kidnapping and turning six school children into tubers of yam before being set ablaze. The alleged kidnappers, according to eye witness reports, were dressed in white robes with charms concealed underneath their garments when they were caught.

The story is not different in Lagos where two suspects - a male and a female were lynched in Oke-Odo suburb along the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway while another victim, a woman was also arrested and lynched by an irate mob at Somolu, another suburb of Lagos.

Some of the suspected kidnappers were, however, lucky as they were either arrested by the police or saved from being lynched by irate mobs through the quick intervention of the police.

Policemen from Itire, another suburb of the metropolis arrested two women and one male suspect while attempting to kidnap a ten year-old boy in the area. Another child, five year-old Kenneth said to have been kidnapped by the suspects was found in their custody, according to police reports.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adewole Ajakaiye has held crucial meetings with area commanders in the state and urged them to check the incident of kidnapping. He, however, warned against lynching of suspected kidnappers.

''Nobody has a right to lynch anybody. It is criminal and barbaric. Nobody can take the laws into their hands. We will arrest anyone who takes part in lynching people and treat them as criminals. Nigeria is a civilised society and any suspected kidnapper should be handed over to the police for appropriate action,'' Ajakaiye said.

The Ogun State Police Command through its spokesman, Mr. Olufemi Awoyale, also warned members of the public to desist from taking the law into their hands.

''The command will not tolerate jungle justice. The law of the land presumes a suspect innocent until otherwise proved by a competent court of law. How do they establish whether or not the burnt people were culpable as proclaimed? How do we investigate? How are we sure they were not innocent people?,'' Awoyale asked.

According to him, by killing and burning the suspects, evidence is destroyed as there will be nobody to charge to court for kidnapping.

But analysts argue that the mob action is a clear indication of the lack of confidence in the Nigerian police and the judiciary to dispense justice. Some of the suspected kidnappers have already appeared in court charged with attempted kidnapping.