In the last three months, Lagos has been in the grip of the mob who deliver jungle justice to anyone accused of kidnapping, even without convincing facts. The fear of the mob has become the beginning of wisdom for many Lagosians as fear of extra-judicial killings grips many residents. Seun Akioye investigates
There were more than 1,000 people in the murderous mob comprising mostly of commercial motorcyclists and tricycle riders, motor park touts and idle youths the day Ify Blessing, a graduate of Public Administration from the University of Maiduguri, was stripped naked, beaten up and murdered.
For many hours, her body burned at the gates of Idowu Adetunji Street, Ekoro Road in Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area of Lagos State.
Almost everyone in the crowd agreed she attempted to kidnap three children, two boys and a girl on their way to school. But what the crowd could not agree to was the manner of the kidnap; while a section of the crowd said she came in a Jeep four-wheel-drive and was caught when she was making a phone call to prospective buyers, others said she seized the children on the way to school and attempted to take them in the opposite direction. Newcomers to the scene believed either story depending on the side of the crowd they were in. And of course, you could make up your own version.
The accused stood in the midst of the crowd, naked and bleeding. She did not respond to any of the questions posed at her by her tormentors. This to the crowd confirmed her guilt and more blows were rained on her. She took the blows without crying and when she fell under the powers of the flames, she did not beg for mercy.
Alhaji S. Taiwo remembered the day. “It is disheartening, it is wicked, inhuman. I could not sleep for three days after witnessing what the crowd did that day, “he told The Nation. As one of the community leaders on Idowu Adetunji Street, Taiwo’s house overlooks the gate of the street where Ify was murdered. From a room, in his third floor apartment, he had a vintage position to witness all that happened on Tuesday, May 6, 2014.
“I saw everything; none of the boys on this street took part. When the crowd attempted to bring her into the estate, we locked the gate. We called the police. It was dangerous to interfere, some of us who tried to were beaten up, one luckily escaped with his life. Now, we know the woman was innocent, they just killed her for nothing,” Taiwo said, shaking with anger.
The story of Ify strongly reminiscent of what has become the lot of many in Lagos recently. In the last three months there have been more than 40 reported cases of mob justice against those accused of either stealing or kidnapping children for the sake of ritual money. In many of the cases, the first accusers were not known, a slight suspicion was enough to send the mob into a frenzy of murder and their usual instrument of death is arson.
The second day, after Ify was murdered another man was burnt to death on Osundairo Street in Iyana-Ipaja, another suburb of Lagos. The victim later identified as Shams-ideen Yussuf was accused of trying to kidnap a 4-year-old boy, who was also on his way to school. Eyewitnesses said Yussuf was wearing only his underwear and looking unkempt. His ‘crime’ was being seen near a school child and when questioned, his response was incoherent, so the mob descended on him, stripped whatever remained of his clothes, a disused car tyre was brought, money was contributed to buy petrol and he was burnt to death. Black smoke rose from the burning flesh visible for all to see several meters away.
Disturbing trend
The day Ify died, another suspected kidnapper was almost murdered about two kilometers from the spot of her murder. He had been accused of trying to kidnap some children, no one is sure how many or the manner of kidnap but mere accusation had satisfied the mob which was about to burn him to death but he was saved by a detachment of tough looking police officers from Ile-Epo police station.
A reliable police source at the Ile-Epo police divisional headquarters told The Nation that five more people were rescued from irate mobs that same week within the area.
“But the irony of the matter is all those we rescued were all mad people. After securing their identities, we have released them to their families. And all those who accused them have ran away and we can’t even find the children they were supposed to have kidnapped or attempted to kidnap,” she said.
Investigations conducted by The Nation into the murder of Ify revealed startling facts about the alleged kidnapper. Alhaji Taiwo said he had met her father at the police station who confirmed she had mental problems.
“Her father told me her mental problem began the first year she started working after her graduation from the University. This has prevented her from getting married or doing anything worthwhile with her life. Her sister brought her to Lagos to take proper care of her before she met her death,” Taiwo said.
Investigations also revealed that prior to her death; Ify had lived on Adigun Popoola Street in Ekoro road, about 500 meters from where she died. When The Nation visited the neighbourhood, few people initially admitted they knew where she lived; but many later confirmed she was indeed mad.
“She had mental problems but you wouldn’t know, every morning, she would go to the bus stop to beg for money. But because she was always neat and she dressed well many people didn’t know her mental state. She came to live here with her sister in November 2013,” a resident volunteered.
Alhaji Adisa (surname protected), a human rights activist in Ekoro said the suspect who was rescued at Ile-Epo was really mad. “The boy was discharged from Yaba Psychiatrist Hospital in 2010; the father brought the discharge certificate. He fought with his boss where he was learning a trade and disappeared only to show up here in Ile-Epo. If not for the police, he would have been killed,” he said.
A disturbing trend about the jungle justice is that many of the victims were either totally mad or suffer from autistic conditions. In Ify’s case, her accusers said when she was questioned, her response was incoherent.
“How can her response be coherent, were they blind to see she was not normal?” Adisa asked, full of anger. In his house, a fully grown autistic woman came outside, she could speak but her words were full of inconsistencies. “She is an endangered specie, that is why we don’t ever leave her alone in the house, somebody must always be with her. If she goes out and someone accused her of kidnapping how will she defend herself, how will her words be coherent?” he asked.
Guilty or not
But an irate mob is hardly convinced about the mental stability of its victim neither does it care about getting facts of the accusation. Most of the time, therefore, many of its victims were found to have been innocent, only when it was too late.
That was the case of Ify. In her Adigun Popoola Street, a pall of gloom had descended on the neighbourhood since her murder. The residents are wary of the label her murder had given the street and any inquiry about her met with stoic silence, at first.
A woman identified as “Iya Latifat” who sells provisions on the street said she knew the late woman as the deceased used to patronise her store. The Nation asked her if Ify was a kidnapper, she responded to this inquiry with a look of profound contempt.
“She was not a kidnapper, I knew her,” she snapped, a sort of anger creeping to her face. “I knew her, she was my customer. She loved groundnuts and she comes here every day to buy N20 worth, if you see her, you will think she was a rich woman, until she starts begging for money,” she said.
She also revealed that Ify was plump and big; she had a pink cap on her head all the time and had a rich look around her. “She wears second hand clothes but they were neat, she doesn’t speak much except to ask for money from anybody. I didn’t know she was the one they were burning, if I knew I would have been able to identify her.”
Many people on that street felt the same way. Many carried with them the guilty feelings of their inability to save a fellow resident who was incapable of saving herself. The day of her death, her sister identified as Uche was said to have gone around looking for her late into the evening, until someone came to tell her she saw Ify’s clothes near the scene of the tragedy.
“Normally, she doesn’t stay outside too long, but on that day she didn’t come back till evening. That was when alarm was raised. It’s sad she died like that, if only she could talk, we have left her killers in the hands of God,” Iya Latifat said. But the irony of Ify’s death was that she was to be taken to a church for ‘deliverance’ the day she died.
Pastor John Amaga of Deliverance Outreach Ministries, located on the same street said he had tried to conduct a deliverance session for the deceased. “Every time I asked her to come to church, she would just say give me breakfast. I believe she was bewitched, she had been harmed in the spirit and the physical manifestation just came about,” he said.
Inside her former house on 13, Popoola Adigun Street, family members had gathered to condole with her sister. It was difficult to believe Ify had been living in the house which was decently arranged and kept neat. Though The Nation could not see Ify’s sister, after repeated visits, a family member said the issue has been left in the hands of God.
On Tuesday, May 13, a grandmother was almost murdered in Ajegunle by a mob who had accosted her when a baby was found with her. Without waiting for explanations, the mob accused her of kidnapping the day-old baby and proceeded to lynch her.
It was later learnt she was the baby’s grandmother and the hospital had asked her to take care of the child as the mother was mentally unstable. That same day, a mob descended on a man in Shasha area of Akowonjo and almost killed him but for the timely intervention of the police.
“It was the Baale that called the police before the man was saved. It was actually the parents of the child that asked him to take the child to school because it was on his way,” an eyewitness said.
A riotous mob
The crowd that supervised the burning of Ify had showed her no mercy, according to several eyewitnesses interviewed by The Nation, Ify’s travail did not start from Idowu Adetunji gate. It was gathered that she had been accused of kidnapping by a woman very close to her own street and dragged all the way to where she was eventually murdered.
“You should have seen them that day, they were beating her mercilessly, somebody went to the petrol station to get petrol and when they burnt her, they were turning her like a barbecue,” Alhaji Taiwo said.
Several other witnesses, who do not want their names mentioned described the mood of the mob as demonic. “It was like they were possessed by demons. There were a few people who tried to stop them but they were beaten up, one man was chased down the street, I am sure he is still recuperating in the hospital now,” one said.
The mob is usually very violent and unrestrained. Only those who were ready to face the consequences dared interfere. In Iyana-Ipaja, the mob was so violent; it was able to repeal the police who came to rescue the victim.
In the Ekoro tragedy, most of those in the mob were Okada riders and motor park touts, some witnesses also accused the members of the Ekoro motor park of complicity in the murder. ”Okada and Marwa people are very touchy, a little thing and they go on rampage,” an eyewitness said. Two weeks ago, after the Police had rescued a suspected kidnapper putting him under protective custody, the mob had followed the police to the station and demanded jungle justice on the suspect.
“Our DPO (Divisional Police Officer) had to forcefully take the suspect to the Force Headquarters because the crowd had the audacity to demand that we hand over the suspect to them for jungle justice. It was that bad,” a police source said.
How does a mob work? According to findings, most mobs gather their strength from their number, the more the people, the more the difficulty in pinning the crime on a particular person. And in Nigeria where most mob actions go unpunished, it has become a ‘legitimate’ weapon used by the poor against fellow citizens.
In Lagos, where an army of unemployed and under-employed youths roam the streets, it is very easy to be lured into crime especially when there will be no repercussions. In Ify’s case, those who killed her were said to have come from far and near and the men seemed eager to strip her naked.
“Ha, when they stripped her, you could see she was a beautiful woman, she would be in her 40s and when they were beating and mocking her, she just took it all in quietly, like a sheep led to the slaughter,” an eyewitness said.
So what could have turned an otherwise decent crowd into a blood sucking, murderous mob? According to Adesanyan Olawale, a socio-behavioural scientist, the behavi-our of the mob was a result of bottled up anger against the ills of the society.
“People say when election is around the corner, that is when all these disappearances happen, so the people are charged already. If you look at the mob, you will see it is made up of the jobless and those on the lower strata of the societal ladder. They are already angry at the corruption and ills of the land, so they believe that kidnappers used the children for money or political ritual and as such they should not be spared,” Olawale said.
But one wonders why the suspects were not handed over to the police as usually advocated by law enforcement agents. “The people do not trust the police any longer, they say the police will release them and they will go scot free, that’s why they take the laws into their hands,” Pastor Amaga said.
While agreeing that the people may have passed a vote of no confidence in the police, former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) vice chairman, Ikorodu branch, Barrister Adedotun Adetunji said jungle justice has no place in the Nigerian law.
“It is detestable and under the law it is wrong. There have been many cases where they have lynched the innocent. But you see, the people are charged and when they see all the injustice going on in government they tend to take the laws into their own hands. But that does not justify jungle justice, it should not be condoned,” Adetunji said.
Coming to the spirited defense of the police, Alhaji Aziz Fasugba, a community leader in Oke-Odo area said poverty could not be the reason for the unrestrained behaviour of the mob. He said the people’s superstitious belief about ritual killings during election time usually fuels the suspicions of kidnappings and the acts were mainly carried out by touts.
“When they blame the police, you should know that the police need evidence and when such is not forthcoming, the police will have to release the accused. Only people with criminal inclinations will resort to such barbaric acts,” Fasugba said.
A police source also blamed the problem on the populace. “How can we solve crime when people don’t give us the information to unravel crime, what is the basis for jungle justice when you don’t have evidence, it’s a societal problem and not a vote of no confidence in the police,” the source argued.
In proffering a solution, the police in Oke-Odo said it has begun a mass sensitisation of the people of the area towards eradicating the problem. “We have called all the leaders of thought in this area and enjoined them to go back to their communities and enlighten their people. We commend some who have taken action against this scourge in the past and plead with the people not to take the laws into their hands,” a police source said.
On his part, Adetunji said the people’s orientation must change. “When we have a government that listens to the yearnings of the people and which the people can trust. The rule of law must be in place and the wishes and aspirations of the people must be done. Then trust can return and we will see less of such problems in the society,” he said.
Government takes
a tough stance
Worried by the growing trend of mob justice, the Lagos State government through the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, last week issued a warning against the barbaric act saying the full weight of the law would be brought to bear on anyone caught engaging in jungle justice, no matter what the alleged criminal could have done.
Ipaye noted that anyone who engages in such act has committed criminal act and liable to arrest and punishment. “Even, if they did commit the alleged offence, there is a process for prosecuting and showing the evidence in court so that proven criminals can be properly punished according to law,” he said.
In the same vein, the Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar warned that the police will no longer tolerate the act of jungle justice. “The IGP warns that any person found to be involved in any acts of impunity or jungle justice must bear the full wrath of the law as two wrongs cannot make a right,” a statement signed by Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba said.
In the same vein, Ngozi Braide, a Deputy Superintendent of Police and spokesperson for Lagos State Police Command told The Nation jungle justice is not acceptable in Lagos. “Nobody has any right to take any life no matter the gravity of the offense, if you see anyone committing a crime, the next thing is to call the police, the command is against it, you don’t have the right to kill,” she said.
Braide, who blamed the occurrences of jungle justice on moral decadence in the society said whoever commits such acts will be arrested. “We will deal with those arrested with the full measure of the law, the act is unacceptable.”
On Wednesday, May 14, at about 6:00pm, about 100 people gathered in Ify’s house for a solemn service of songs for her departed soul. Among the crowd were family members, residents of the street, church members and other sympathisers. A family source told The Nation, the service may be the only last rites accorded her because her body had been burnt to ashes.
At the gate of Adetunji Idowu Street, a huge pile stood in the middle of the road, on closer look there were remnant of burnt car tires and ashes. “This is where they burnt her, this is where it happened,” Alhaji Taiwo pointed to the spot on the ground. And that was where Ify was buried, that was where her ashes remained.
