Jungle justice on the rise

An Abuja-based Legal practitioner, Mr Olamikanra Ogunyemi, has decried the incessant rise in `jungle justices’ in some parts of the country.

Ogunyemi appealed to members of the public to desist from taking the laws into their hands.

According to him, the public, when faced with small or extreme cases, must handle the situation in a civilised manner and let the law deal with the judgment.

“People must be vigilant and not crazy or else we will not be able to differentiate between the culprit and the innocent.

“Of course, we should all strive to do what is right but what many people fail to realise is that our code of law mirrors the ethics and morals of the people.

“It is a weak excuse to say you broke the law to do what is right when you did not first of all do everything within the law.

“For example, when a community comes together to kill a sex offender, that is wrong.

“Wrong because any time, we as a people lose ourselves in passionate zeal and rage and commit such a violent act regardless of the situation, it degrades us.”

He added that anyone who unites under mob violence against an offender only lowers his or herself to the level of the offender irrespective of his or her offence.

Ogunyemi added that people must continue to put their faith in the justice system, adding that no matter how long a trial, justice must prevail at the end of the day.

“If we cannot put our trust in our own laws, there is no point in having them.

“Yes, there are times when the law fails to keep up with our morals because of bureaucratic gibberish.

“ But I believe a person who truly thinks what he or she did was right will not be deterred because of a prison sentence.

“ To say the law cannot truly support the morals of the people is unwarrantable and shows only your own weakness not to recognise the bigger picture,” he said.

He further submitted that people who take laws into their hands placed themselves above the law by becoming judge, jury and executioner.

He said that “without laws, there will no longer be a civil society and the system will quickly degenerate into a wild-west situation, where those with the guns make the rules’’.

According to him, people who take the law into their own hands must be willing and ready to face and take responsibilities of their action.

He urged the judiciary and the law enforcement agencies to synergise in improving and implementing the law so that it mirrors the definition of justice in the country.