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| Mob Justice |
“It is the duty of every good citizen not to encourage guilt of mob-riotous proceedings”- Sir John Hay Athole Macdonald
While mob justice is not unique to Nigeria, the failure of criminal justice institutions and agencies to prevent its occurrence or punish those who engage in it, have projected the vile anomaly into public space as acceptable. Although there is no mob justice victim or incidence data-base; or a systematic information gathering system on the theme, there is regular media reporting of cases of lynching and setting alight of persons accused of crime.
The range of alleged offences for which mobs have exerted punishment in Nigeria is wide. On one end of the spectrum are violent criminal offences such as murder, assault, armed robbery, rape, kidnapping, on the other are offences against property- theft, fraud and misappropriation. Other classes of offences for which mobs have punished suspects are: accusations of witchcraft, magical theft of genitals, blasphemy and violating religious texts, violation local customs and taboos and non-observance of religious and cult rites among others
Often, the execution of mob justice is spontaneous and triggered by a group of bystanders who witness a perceived violation of social mores and then initiate the process of violence in remedy of the perceived wrong. This illegitimate violence triggered by few actors who serve as the accuser, judge and executor, deploy slaps, sticks, stones, iron rods, machetes, petrol and other combustible substances in enforcing their slant of justice. The Nigerian constitution and other criminal legislations explicitly outlaw the instant longing for redress without recourse to the established channels. Section 36(1) of the 1999 constitution guarantees in all instances the right to fair hearing; Section 33(1) of the same constitution assures every citizen the right to life and punitively prohibits the deprivation of life except in execution of a court sentence or other approved circumstances; Sections 252 and 253 of the Criminal Code outlaw assault in all its manifestations. Thus there are enough laws in the Nigerian legal corpus prohibiting the act.
However, the effectiveness of legal guarantees is not just a matter of detailed institutional design, it is also a question of interconnected cluster of values that underpin formal institutions and the success of a law or legal policy rests squarely on a number of extra-legal circumstances, least of which is public perception and a cluster of cultural values. There is a correlation between law and the social milieu within which it operates, and that makes public perception on the performance of the criminal justice important.
Mob justice is one of the key consequences of the failure of criminal justice system in Nigeria to timeously and efficiently manage the processing of criminal case. There is unmistakable low public confidence in the capacity of the security services and the court system to fairly and independently punish crime according to law. A particular tragic case highlights this point- an accused serial rapist and murderer (referred to as Badoo) was allegedly apprehended in Ikorodu, a suburb of the Lagos and handed over to security services. Whatever happened, he found his way back to the street and apprehended soon thereafter by members of the community after allegedly violating a minor; members of the community summarily set alight the victim this time. This incidence forms one of the mosaics on the tableau of systemic incompetence and mob justice in Nigeria.
The frightening fatal swiftness and arbitrariness of the process of mob justice in Nigeria makes it particularly susceptible to abuse and settling scores. The ‘Aluu-4’ episode underscores this fact; four university students who allegedly went to recover a debt, were set-up by the supposed debtor and were lynched in the most gruesome manner. The ‘Aluu-4’ tragedy is not a one-off happening and it highlights the vulnerability of citizens to the vagaries of the practice of mob justice in Nigeria and the low value that is placed on human life in Nigeria.
Mob justice is not objective and has no quantum for measuring the punishment that is given to persons accused of crime. People have been lynched for offences ranging from- picking pockets, petty stealing, robbery fraud, witchcraft, blasphemy and violating social taboos, depending on the ‘mood’ of the mob. What is the just in a system that allocates the same punishment for stealing a tuber of yam and murder? In fact, it is not odd to see people joining a mob to punish a person accused of crime without knowing the particular offence the victim is alleged to have committed.
The siren song of mob justice for instantaneous punishment of criminal violations is injurious to social order as it undermines rule of law, increases uncertainty and risk, disrupt social communication and appeal to reason, discourage alternative dispute resolution processes, undercut property rights and has a tendency to set Nigeria on the slippery slope into anomie; but unfortunately, the practice is fast becoming a part of the story in urban centres in Nigeria.
Even in instances when mob justice seem alluringly appropriate, the best argument that one can bring up against the resort to self help is simple – self-preservation and self-interest – do you want to be that next hapless victim, who never was given the fair opportunity of explaining what really happened? And according to a Yoruba proverb – the one who listens to just one side in adjudicating is a super villain; any system that punishes a man without appropriately hearing out the suspect is unjust, unfair and indecent.
• Osasona is a research associate at the Centre for Public Policy Alternatives
Source: The Guardian
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