Hardball
It was a scene straight out of a movie: a 23-year old, in a strange play with a four-year old girl, in an Awka market in Anambra State — except that this one was real.
At the end of it all, one of the actors ended up lynched, by an angry mob, for a perceived “fetish ritual” on the poor girl. A beast appeared to have met a beastly and grisly death. But it was no judgment any civilized commune would be proud of, even if the provocation was extreme.
As reported by The Nation of November 5, Ginika Eze, mother of the four-year old, had momentarily left her stall to buy bread and beans for her hungry daughter, on mid-term break from school. But no sooner had she left her stall than the bizarre drama started.
Hear Mrs Eze’s shocking testimony: “Later my attention was drawn to my stall where my daughter was struggling with a man almost half-naked. He was kissing and fondling her” — a four-year old for God’s sake! — “while muttering: I must drink your blood.” What! And right there in the open, in the market!
The helpless mother continued: “Some boys within the area ran to the scene and rescued my daughter from him. By then, blood was already dropping from her face as the man held her tight in his arms.”
Of course, the tragedy was predictable. With extreme loathing and rage, the mob pounced on the man, said to be a driver with a private school in the locality, and he was reportedly lynched. But that was after their poor girl had been rescued from his grip. An unnamed witness even swore the dead man was about sucking the girl’s blood before he was lynched, thus lending credence to the “fetish ritual” story and perhaps justifying the lynching.
The police had a more practical angle to the tragedy. Haruna Mohammed, the police spokesperson, reasoned the deceased was probably under the influence of drugs: “He seized the little girl and was molesting her before being accosted by irate civilians who beat him to death. When the police arrived at the scene, the boy who was probably in his late 20s, was lying motionless on the ground, while his assailants had dispersed. He was taken to the hospital, where he was confirmed dead.”
End of story? The story did not say. But the police should still investigate the case, though not a few, rocked with rage, would hiss good riddance!
That may be so. But lynching, no matter the crime, provocation, rage or loathing, should never be an acceptable mode of justice, in a polity governed by law. Aside from vengeance not exactly justice, it is imperative that folks are not further socialized into blindly taking laws into their hands. That could well be the grave of many innocent souls, falsely accused of crimes, in the heat of the moment.
But aside from crime and punishment, the police should get to the root of the dead man’s strange and ultra-reckless behaviour. Was it really a ritual play for money? Or it was dangerous drugs playing yo-yo with his unhinged mind?
Stories like these point to the creeping heart of darkness of present-day Nigeria. What really is afflicting us as a people?
Leave a Reply