JUNGLE JUSTICE - A SERIOUS THREAT TO NATIONAL SECURITY.

Jungle justice is the concept and act of disregarding the rule of law and taking matters into one’s hands; more clearly put, it is the act of handing suspected criminals over to the hands and mercy of an angry mob. Two wrongs don’t make a right, not now, not ever.

At least every criminal in the law court is considered innocent till proven guilty. With the increasing rate of jungle justice, it is feared that people will begin to see life as nothing to be preserved. Has jungle justice reduced the level of crimes perpetuated in the community?

The answer is no; it never will. As a matter of truth, burning and gruesomely degrading human beings is a greater evil; it is an outright violation of human rights. Jungle justice reduces human life and dignity to zero and this is why some people can afford to call Africans barbarians.

The sadly amazing part of this barbaric act is that people seem to be entertained by it. I’ve often wondered, if we can have people around such scenes, taking pictures and making videos, why is it that hard to have people who would vehemently refuse the act being done.

Perhaps they try but get weak or rather scared for their own lives. In some occasions, the police force are involved but the opposite response was gotten. They act lackadaisical over the matter, sometimes even supporting the mob or the worst kind, becoming the lead characters in the madness.

In any case I believe it will do everybody a whole lot of good if there was a sort of regulation of what goes into the media; seems to be doing more harm than good. It corrupts more than it ‘supposedly’ deters people.

Almost every week, you must hear at least a story of how people were lynched for stealing or committing one crime or the other and this excludes the ones that go unreported.
Such suspected criminals are often subjected to a lot of pain before life is finally gone out of him/her.

They are attacked with sticks, stones, bottles or anything that will inflict serious pain on the person. After which, they burn the person alive.
For some, their punishment is well deserved, it is justice served. They feel they have a right to decide whether a criminal lived or died. But for those with a conscience, it is the height of wickedness. It is just barbaric.

Legally , even if it has been proven that the suspect committed the crime , it is not within the right or power of the mob to kill a suspect , without giving the person a fair hearing. Despite knowing the consequences of engaging in mob action , many Nigerians , especially the street urchins and touts have not been deterred from engaging in the illegal act at any slightest opportunity .

Having not helped matters in this direction are the security agents, who do not respond promptly to such situations , thereby giving room for perpetrators to go scot- free in most cases. But the questions that are begging for answers are ; why do people engage in mob action and go scot- free?

Why has it become a preferable option among Nigerians ? What are the government , security agencies and judiciary doing to halt it? Will Nigerians ever stop engaging in it, considering the fact that they seem to have lost absolute confidence in the security and judiciary system ?

It is a way of going back to old pre -colonial way of taking laws into one ’ s hands in trying to avenge a wrong . Unfortunately we have since gone past this era of barbaric way of doing things .

We have since gone past the era of this barbaric way of doing things like putting fire on people , pouring acid or making people to swim across crocodile - infested water.

“ People who have been involved in these extra - judicial killings have not been prosecuted to get justice for their victims . It is a criminal act . The constitution provides for the right to life and it is declared that nobody ’ s life should be taken. ”

“ Any society that tolerates such barbaric conduct shows clearly the level of its judicial development and that is a very clear evidence of a failed state .

If you have somebody who is a suspect and alleged to have been involved in a criminal act , the proper thing is to ensure that the police arrest such person and ensure that the police carry out diligent investigation and ensure that they are charged to court and ensure that they have their day in court .

“ People are increasingly losing faith in the police investigative system and processes . They think that when these suspects are arrested , they might be freed by the police or released by the courts so the right thing to do is to take the law into their hands , but two wrongs do not make a right .

No amount of loss of faith in the judicial process should encourage and tolerate or empower any person to take the laws into his hands . Anybody who does that can be charged for act of conspiracy , murder or attempted murder as the case may be .

“ Our criminal justice system has been a very topical issue everywhere in this country. But the slow pace of obtaining justice is not an excuse to delve into the arena of violence and crime . Whoever is opposed to the process and decides to indulge in criminal act will find himself on the wrong side of the law .

The era of taking suspected criminals into private custody and killing them has gone . Anybody found doing so is playing with fire .

Jungle justice is a serious threat to national security . Nigeria is a civil society and not a jungle , so the rules of the jungle should not be allowed in a civil society to stifle the prescient structures of democracy .

The government must wake up to her responsibilities, using the security agents to curb the menace of these primordial shenanigans. The constitution of Nigeria in section 14 posits , “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government . ”

The danger of jungle justice is that almost always, innocent citizens are killed because society passes judgment on the victims spontaneously , leaving room for errors and the questions of mistaken identities.

Our history of crime is littered with gory stories of innocent Nigerians who were mistakenly killed for just no cause . Any person can be mistakenly killed in Nigeria once the fierce mob gathers to hear a suspect has committed an offence .

“The state of our criminal justice system is weak, disoriented, and not reliable. The primary operatives of the system have clearly not lived up to expectation; they constantly perform below par and many times offer bail for justice.

“The criminal justice system is slack; there is nobody to hold anybody accountable for performance. When you report a case to the police and that case is compromised at the police level and there is nothing to say to those who are involved in the investigation to account for how they performed in relation to their duty (and the case at hand) that means there is problem".

Security operatives, especially the police are usually accused of conniving with criminals to pervert the course of justice, alleging that many at times, criminals who are handed over to the police are usually released in questionable circumstances.

Hence, it is this lack of confidence in the judicial system that many often hide under to commit all sorts of atrocities in the name of securing extra judicial resolution.

However, irrespective of whatever logic that is behind jungle justice, it is nothing but a totally lawless and condemnable act. It is a dangerous act with the prospect of turning a society into an animal kingdom. It is the height of lawlessness and barbarism.

In most cases, those who perpetrate the act only ride on popular emotion to get at perceived enemies or detractors. Over time, it has been discovered that victims of jungle justice are often innocent and harmless people who are just unfortunate.
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