JUNGLE JUSTICE IS NO JUSTICE. By Barr. Okeke Onyebuchi.

Justice can be defined as “Fairness in the way people are treated”. Jungle justice simply put can be defined as a form of extra judicial killing where the victim is deprived the rule of law and justice is meted out in a barbaric and appalling fashion usually through stoning or burning the individual in the full glare of the public. In simpler words Jungle Justice is synonymous with Injustice which is defined as “a situation in which people are treated very unfairly and not given their rights”.

Jungle justice has become very rampant in Africa and Nigeria as the fastest way of meting out justice to criminal suspects caught in the act; however this form of justice is highly barbaric, demonic and inhumane in the 21^st century and must be condemned totally. Doing my research for this paper, I discovered that all the materials I got were limited to Africa and Nigeria, making me raise the question: Is jungle justice a black man’s curse? If not why doesn’t it happen in other developed societies? These questions opened my eyes to a lot of possible answers. Joyce Meyer once said that the first battle of any human starts in the mind. The Nigerian and African mindset must first be purged of so much evil, hate and anger towards his fellow citizens and such anger must be transferred into other well meaning ventures, which could yield positive results. He who has not sinned or committed a crime let him cast the first stone. Everyone has sinned so why don’t we learn to tolerate the suspect until we take him to a police station for proper investigation.

Anyone could be a victim of Jungle justice, so it is not something that should be seen as the poor man’s curse, remembering the case of Aluu 4, those young boys came out from very comfortable backgrounds, but when the evil of Jungle justice was brought upon them, it forgot their prestige and treated them just the same way most victims are usually treated ‘Barbaric’. The video of that incident brought out a public outcry, as much as it was publicized all over the world, and condemned out rightly, it still did not send a shiver down the spine of the next Nigerian living far away from Aluu, because in the Jungle everyone behaves alike. Another similar story of a jungle justice was recorded in Nsukka; a young man Sylvester Ezema was allegedly burnt to death for impregnating a woman and her daughter. For crying out loud, is this worth Jungle Justice? From this instance we see that Jungle justice has left the realms of armed robbery and all the more violent crimes to simple offences like ‘who we sleep with in private’, do not be surprised when some group of people start burning kids for ‘stealing meat in their mothers pot’ or when they start ‘burning students for cheating in examination halls’. Recently, another incident took place in Ejigbo, where some women were accused of stealing pepper; they were molested and bathed with pepper as their punishment. Away from Nigeria, the very recent precisely the 8th of October 2013, a lynch mob killed three Nigerians in Guinea Bissau, who were accused of child kidnap in Bissau. HOW INHUMANE!

I do not want to tilt on the sides of emotions, as the videos of such incidents can do a better job to touch on the human emotions, but it seems it does not last long because as they are rounding up one jungle justice in my backyard, another is taking place at your backyard. So what then could be the cause of this evil act? Because, as it is fondly said that it is circumstances that make crayfish bend, so why then as the Nigerian populace decided to bend in this satanic acts. No matter the cause, it is not justified for another human to take the life of another.

1.      Ineffective Legal System: The Legal system in Nigeria can be regarded as one of the slowest in the world, where court cases linger for as much as 21 years and suspects are deprived fast and speedy hearing of their cases, so much that they most times spend out their sentence in prison awaiting trials, or most times gruesome crimes are swept under the carpet to die a natural death, e.g. of such cases are: The Murder of Bola Ige; The murder of Chief Funsho Williams; The Fuel Subsidy scam; The Halliburton Case as well as The Farouk Lawan’s case, the list is endless. Most cases are swept under the Carpet and they  Most citizens do not believe in the police system and its ability to uphold law and order, the general failure of the police in upholding law and order in society, has warranted people to be their own police. The Nigerian police must work on their public relations, and always see Nigerians as their friends, despite the fact that most Nigerians do not see them that way, as we can remember vividly, that during the Aluu 4 mayhem, the Nigerian police was on the scene supporting the actions of the masses. But then these should in no way make us forget the fact that in Nigeria the rule of law prevails and the inadequacies of the law enforcement agencies does not actually give any individual or group the right to trample on the rule of law. In the words of a onetime Justice Of the supreme court, Oputa JSC, “the establishment of a court system is a great milestone in human Journey, we are reminded how in a state of savagery and jungle justice, all men were arm and law unto themselves. Development and civilization means that courts were established and men dropped that weapon and brought their causes to the court’. No matter how it sounds, two wrongs can never make a right. If a well-known notorious criminal like Pius Anini and his gang could be charged before a court, granted fair hearing before eventually executed, who and what offenses  could be committed by anyone that would deny them  fair trial. With jungle justice there is usually no fairness or patience to listen to sides thereby depriving the laws of natural justice that says “Hear the other party.” The other party must always be heard, as there are always two sides to a coin.

The constitution by virtue of Sec 36(1) provides that a person suspected to have committed an offense must be given ‘fair hearing and brought before a court or tribunal established by law’. Sec 36(5) to state thus; ‘Every person who is charged with a criminal offense shall be presumed to be INNOCENT until he is proved guilty”. This means that only a court has the power to pronounce a person guilty until a competent court declares a person guilty, they remain innocent. Therefore one can rightly presume that all those innocently killed through the execution of jungle justice were actually innocent. The Constitution of Nigeria is the guiding principle of the people, it’s not one that must be obeyed by a selected few but must be adhered to by all and sundry. Any state that it’s citizen cannot obey it’s constitution is not worthy to be regarded as developed and should be seen as a failed state.

2.      Unemployment/ Illiteracy: Unemployment is another factor that causes this barbarism. Unemployment rate in this clime is so alarming. In fact most of the people that get themselves involved in jungle justice are those who know nothing of the alleged crime in the first place. Jobless passersby who have been idle all day. Tackling unemployment is very necessary if we need to curb this menace. Imagine a situation where all Nigerians have a meaningful job during the day, they would spend less time thinking of whom to kill, but rather focus all that energy into something more creative. The bible says, “My People perish for lack of knowledge.” Nigerians are always quick at judging ourselves, once you see a mob scene and ask the man standing by what happened, he may not know the full gist of what happened, the first thing you here from his mouth is “Na Thief”, no one ever wants to get to the root of the matter, most Nigerians think that as they kill one supposed criminal, that would reduce crime, well i wish to say categorically, that Jungle justice cannot reduce crime. It just makes us look like animals in the international community.

3.      Failure of Leadership: As John Maxwell rightly puts it “Everything begins and ends with leadership.” Our leaders must realize that they also share in the blame of these vicious killings, because they have all the necessary apparatus to make a change, but because they have failed to act, the citizens have decided to react. Our Leaders must stop waiting till the situation is critical, before they act, they must learn to be proactive in their doings. Seminars, Conferences, Sensitization must be done on a daily basis to stop this barbaric act, the government must learn to be responsive and responsible in dealing with the culprits of these acts, as well as take a stand against this menace eating up the morality of individuals.

In Nigeria, it is a fact that the human life is not worth more than a pinch of salt, in developed societies, they take care of their animals better than the way they take care of humans here in Nigeria. But should that continue to be the way it is, we must learn to make a drastic stop to these acts and work towards a positive change of heart. The Bible says “Do unto others what you want them to do unto you” no one wants to be burnt like a goat in public, so why do it to others. The streams of justice is one that all always seeks to drink from, as there is a great hunger amongst all to be treated fairly at all times but that is not always the case.  Justice is a non-negotiable factor for the development, existence and sustenance of every society. The concept of Justice and security are so delicate that their absence could damage a nation greatly and their abuse could as well be disastrous to any and every nation. However the need for speedy justice may be the recent increasing resort to JUNGLE JUSTICE.

     The need to checkmate the advent of this Jungle Justice cannot be over emphasized. This is because Jungle Justice is like an undetected virus/vermin that is on the increase and has so far, caused some greatly irreparable and irrevocable damage to the society because in most cases, wrong or innocent persons are killed and this may or maybe not be discovered until the victims’ are dead. Due process should be followed in everything we do, this is where the police is given a place of function by conducting proper and thorough investigation, and the person upon this investigation is charged to court and then, the prosecution of the said suspect would be by a court of competent Jurisdiction where the offender or suspect is given the right to have a counsel defend him. This is in itself is true Justice! No matter their offense, we must remember that the very essence of the law is for the propagation of order, for avoidance of chaos and anarchy.

Whatever our reasons maybe, Jungle Justice can never be the answer. In the actual sense, Jungle Justice only ends up confusing a confused state, scattering an already scattered people and claiming the life of innocent people. We must stay put to what is right, we must never stoop down to a counterfeit (Jungle Justice) but stick to the original (true Justice). In the words of a Police spokesperson on the issue of jungle justice meted out on an innocent man he said “This unfortunate incident should serve as a lesson to everybody. People should exercise restraint and hand-over all suspected criminals to the law enforcement agents for thorough investigation,” he advised. The Lagos state Commissioner of Police also said “No one has right to take the life of another. We have one suspect in custody already and we will get the others. I will not tolerate impunity by anyone.” Jungle justice is no justice but a monster waiting to destroy us all. Let us act fast and move towards self transformation that is the only way Nigeria can move forward.

Barr. Okeke Onyebuchi Esq is the Legal Adviser of Sweet Home Africa Foundation an International Humanitarian Foundation based in Lagos.