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A divided opinion among the gathered youth coupled with the timely intervention of some elderly residents, and not Robert Onuoha’s plea of innocence, saved him from being lynched after he was caught stealing used car batteries inside a compound at Maza maza, Lagos, three weeks ago.

Mr Onuoha, a cart pusher, had allegedly stashed tens of the seemingly abandoned car batteries into his cart when the owner of the compound, Chidi Ewere, who was returning from the day’s church service, walked into him.

Instant execution of apprehended criminals or mob justice, popularly known as ‘jungle justice’, remains a common practice among the populace and critics blame it on the loss of trust in the judicial system.

“This is how they have been stealing all my properties in this house,” said a furious Mr Ewere, who was clutching a machete in his right hand and was being restrained from using it on the alleged thief.

Loss of faith

Respondents say that the practice has continued unabated because of the apparent loss of faith on both the law enforcement agents and the judicial system.

“Jungle justice is a sign that Nigeria is a failed state in this 21st century,” said Washington Ugwu, a Lagos-based legal practitioner.

“People resort to it for reasons (such as) slow pace and technicalities of our legal system, corruption of law enforcement agents who take gratification and allow criminals to go free,” said Mr Ugwu, of Vigil Ndulewe Chambers.

Last year, two armed robbers that were apprehended by a vigilante group at an estate in Maza maza were, after hours of excruciating torture by police officers from the Agboju police station, were allowed to go free.

Investigations revealed that some highly placed individuals in the community negotiated the duo’s release. Though a senior police officer at the station insisted that the suspects, who had confessed to using a gun to rob their victims, had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti. The two men were seen parading the community the same week.

“We don’t trust the police. We have never trusted them. That’s why anytime we catch any robber here, we burn him immediately before they arrive,” said a youth leader at Maza Maza, who did not want to be named.

“If we continue to do them like that, it will serve as an example for their partners,” he said.

Criminals are tried

Police authorities in the state insist that no robber, either armed or unarmed, who had been caught in the act had been ever allowed to go scot free.

“What we normally do is that if a thief is arrested, we normally prosecute him in the court of law . That’s what we’ve been doing; we’ve not been flouting the laws,” said Samuel Jinadu, the Deputy Spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command.

Some respondents argue that because mob action is too hasty, it sometimes ends up victimising the wrong person or the right person but for the wrong reasons.

Last month, when a suspected gay pastor identified as Elijah Adisa was caught at the Amukoko area of Lagos, the irate mob that descended on him accused him of sodomy and practising witchcraft on a group of boys, a claim which the boys he allegedly slept with denied.

“The problem with jungle justice is that sometimes an innocent person is pronounced guilty or false claims can be levelled on a suspected criminal,” said Ayodele Adesuwa, a civil servant. “And by the time the real truth is revealed, it would have been too late because the person would have been killed,” said Mr Adesuwa.

A 2010 poll conducted by CLEEN Foundation revealed that of the people that reported their experiences of crime to the police, 44 per cent indicated outright dissatisfaction with the handling of the cases.

Jide Saliu, the Baale (community leader) of Alafia whose timely intervention prevented the angry mob from executing Mr Adisa, blamed it on the mentality of the people.

“The right thing to do is that whenever anybody suspected to be a criminal is caught, he should be handed over to the nearest police station,” said Mr Saliu.

Take the law and face the law

Mr Jinadu warned that those who engage in the summary execution of suspected criminals extra judicially would be made to face the wrath of the law.

“They are not supposed to do that. If they should do that it means they are taking laws into their hands and the law will definitely catch up with them. We’ve been sermonising about this; that members of the public should not take laws into their hands,” said Mr Jinadu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police.

He said that the state commissioner of police has put strategies in place to checkmate the obnoxious and nefarious attitudes of criminals in the state.

“And we also lecture people on radios and televisions that members of the public should not engage in jungle justice and I think it has been yielding positive results.”

But Mr Ugwu canvassed for an overhaul of the people’s value system as a solution. “There should be a total overhaul of our value system, first from our politicians because they set the pace in corruption by their ostentatious lifestyles, to law enforcement agents and the legal system,” he said.