Ogoja jungle justice is barbaric, degrading to humanity

Alleged phone thief burnt to death by angry mob. Photo:crossriverwatch.com

Sir: It is against the law of God and man to maim or kill anybody suspected to be a criminal under the guise of carrying out jungle justice.

Jungle justice is barbaric, cruel, primitive and degrading to humanity. “Thou shall not kill” is a Biblical commandment that runs through other noble and Godly spiritual and religious organizations all over the world.

No one has the right under the sun to kill or maim anotherperson, without following due, legal and acceptable process through the police and the court.

On Friday, April 5, 2024, tension engulfed Ekpugrinya Ekeja in Ogoja Cross River State. Duala Mabin, a public affairs analyst in Ogoja told this writer that jungle justice was meted out to three persons suspected to have killed a three-year-old baby.

Duala alleged that N6miilion was paid by the family of the unidentified baby and yet, the baby was killed. In anger, three of those suspected to have masterminded the killing were burnt to ashes by some unnamed persons in the community.

Contacted, the police from Ogoja Divisional Police headquarters with the combined team of military officers, stormed the scene of the incident and arrested some people, whisked them to the station, where they were detained.

However, another credible source at Ogoja, who spoke with this writer off record named some of the people arrested and detained and they were between the age bracket of 30 to 35 years.

Reacting to the arrest, some indigenes of the community were said to have staged what was initially regarded as a peaceful protest to effect the release of those arrested and detained.

But, the matter was alleged to have almost degenerated to a misunderstanding with the protesters maintaining hard-line posture that those arrested were innocent of the jungle justice meted out to the suspected kidnappers.

Eventually, the matter was resolved, tension in Ogoja averted after those arrested were released to the community.

Community policing is the in-thing all over the world. Crime is a serious, deadly and ever-evolving matter and the trends are global. Therefore, we should not leave anti-crime war to the police and other security agents alone.

We all have a duty to watch our backs in our homes, compound, street, community, state and the entire nation.God bless Nigeria.
•Emmanuel Udom, a journalist, private investigator and content creator, could be reached via:  [email protected]