Uniport 4: The Police And Jungle Justice

The murder of four University of Port Harcourt undergraduates on 5 October once more brings to the fore the insecurity that has enveloped this nation and the powerlessness of the police and the judicial system in putting a stop to it. The sanctity of human life has been thrown to the dogs as people now settle for jungle justice in dealing with perceived or suspected criminals.

Four young men, all of them between the ages of 18 and 20 were alleged to have been set up by a man who owed one of them a debt and raised an alarm that they were robbers when they came to demand the payment of the debt.

The community’s vigilance group, thirsty for blood after many robbery attacks which the police could not foil, became insane, stripped the young men naked and paraded them round the community after brutalizing them, and then set them on fire, ending four promising lives whose parents had nurtured all these years expecting to reap the fruits of their labour in the end.

The deaths of Ugonna Obuzor an 18-year old 200 level Geology student; Lloyd Toku, 19, a 200 level Civil Engineering student, Tekena Elkhanah, 20, a Diploma Technical student and Chiadika Odinga, 20, a 200 level Theatre Arts student, naturally enraged students of Uniport who went on the rampage leading to the university being shut and provoking questions about why  some Nigerians could be so callous and kill fellow citizens in cold blood when there are law enforcement agents and a legal system in place to deal with crimes and other related issues.

Three weeks ago, over 40 students of the Federal Polytechnic, Mubi, Adamawa state were murdered in cold blood, and while the nation was still grappling with this atrocity, another group of promising Nigerians were murdered by the vigilance group of a community in which the institution is located. Where then is law enforcement and the legal system if murderous people get away with killing just about anyone without being sanctioned and brought to justice through properly constituted channels?

When the young men were being paraded in Aluu community, calls were made to the police who claimed they were overwhelmed by the crowd and had to beat a retreat but it is difficult to believe that armed policemen could be overpowered by a group of people, no matter their number, that they could not call for reinforcement immediately or even admit defeat and call for the help of other security agencies to prevent the death of these unfortunate students.

The police authorities should as a matter of urgency probe the circumstances that led to its men abandoning their responsibilities, paving the way for the gruesome murder of these innocent young men.

If our policemen are so cowardly in their disposition, we wonder why they joined the force in the first place. As usual, the police have vowed that all those involved in the mob killings would be brought to book but are we sure this would actually be done, considering how extra-judicial murders in the past have not been solved till this day. Even if the suspected culprits have been and arraigned, how sure are we that the law will take its course?

The sad death of these young men should jolt us from our slumber and remind us that it could happen to anybody. It should remind us that until we do something to discourage this spate of extra-judicial killings either by policemen or vigilance groups, it would persist. Until the police step up their act, nobody is safe in this country. If the police cannot protect its citizens, we wonder who would!

The arrest of the traditional ruler of the community, the mastermind and prime suspect of the Aluu murder and 20 others may impress some but we believe the police should deploy all it can to not only arrest but prosecute the suspects while the judiciary should do its job of bringing them to book; after all it is no joke to nurture a child to adulthood and we all know what the death of these young adults has done to their families.

The death of the Uniport four not only assaults the sanctity of life, it also highlights the weakness of Nigeria’s security and the lack of confidence in the nation’s criminal justice system. These flaws make people take the law into their hands. We cannot continue to live and act like wild animals when the world is taking the protection of lives and property more seriously than ever. Nobody will protect us and our families if we fail to do so ourselves, but must we allow jungle justice to prevail?