Abuja’s rising cases of ‘jungle justice’
Amob yesterday pounced on two young men suspected to have attempted to steal a car on the Solomon Lar Way, Utako, beating them with iron rods and hurling stones and other missiles at them.
Some people in the crowd at the busy mall where the failed car theft was said to have occurred, chased the suspects as they tried to escape in their getaway vehicle, an Abuja painted Volkswagen Golf taxi cab, with no number plates.
The suspects, obviously aware of the consequences should they be caught, drove off rather desperately but ended up crashing into a protective concrete slab.
They abandoned the car and took to their heels but the crowd caught up with them, near a vulcaniser’s shed, and in less than 10 minutes, they were bleeding profusely from the beating and stoning they were subjected to.
With tires not far away, shouts of: “bring matches,” “bring petrol,” “yes, burn them, “beat them,” filled the air and, but for the intervention of a good Samaritan, they would have been burnt alive. The police arrived in time and whisked them away.
While these two suspects escaped mob action to tell their stories, others have not been so fortunate.
Cases of jungle justice, a situation whereby people take the law into their hands and mete out punishment to suspects, are on the rise in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
A mob burnt a suspect alive in Mararaba for allegedly stealing a handset.
Another was tied to a tree, stripped naked after a thorough beating in Wumba, while yet another was beaten into a coma at Mabushi for snatching a woman’s hand bag.
A suspect that was also caught while attempting to steal a car in Utako was beaten so much that he begged to been taken to the police station.
In some cases residents demand that suspects caught by vigilante groups be released to them, as happened to a 22year-old man who allegedly snatched a motorcycle in Abaji.
However, in this case the vigilantes immediately handed the suspect and the motorcycle to the police for the law to take its course. In many cases, the police have to take suspects to hospital for treatment of injuries sustained from mobs.
While some of the suspects were caught in the act, others were merely accused of the crime. An official of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) was beaten by a mob in Nyanya for allegedly causing an accident.
The officer, who pleaded anonymity, said a motorist had rammed into a school bus while trying to evade arrest. He said the mob pounced on him and also damaged the patrol vehicle.
“I was beaten up for an accident that was not my fault, that is jungle justice,” he said.
He recalled that it took the intervention of armed policemen to disperse the crowd that had already used sticks and other objects to beat him.
A taxi driver, who preferred to be simply identified as Ola said many lives have been destroyed by the criminals who are usually given a “mild punishment.”
Ola recalled the case of a taxi driver who bought a car on hire purchase but lost the vehicle to thieves.
“Now he is still paying for the car,” he said.
“They have been stealing vehicles for a long time. Don’t let them escape,” another resident who would not want to be named shouted while two suspects were been subjected to jungle justice at Utako recently.
Several people that joined in the beating were usually ignorant of the suspect’s offense,
“I no know wetin they do, I just know they are thieves,” a man told our reporter in Pidgin English as he hurled a piece of stone at one of the suspects.
“We have to save life first,” the DPO of Utako police station, CSP Jimoh Gibenle, said after Continued on next page