Some Nigerians have been attacked by mobs based on suspicions of criminal acts. Some of the victims survive and have stories to tell, but others are gruesomely murdered VICTOR AYENI writes

For Omozemoje Umakhile, March 20, 2018, remains an unforgettable day.

He had no inkling of the grave danger ahead when he woke up that morning.

He had boarded a bus from Ekpoma to visit his girlfriend, who was a student at the Auchi Polytechnic.

That journey was to last about 45 minutes.

The 29-year-old Crypto trader, in a wistful tone, told Saturday PUNCH that his lover did not return until evening, though she already told him where she kept her keys.

He said, “We discussed for a while and I was beginning to feel nervous and uncomfortable because I hadn’t smoked for several hours. It was almost 7pm and it was getting dark, so I came up with an excuse to leave the house because my girlfriend didn’t know I smoke cigarettes.

“I told her I wanted to get some energy drinks outside the compound and promised to return in a few minutes. Her hostel was close to a market, and I had two sticks of cigarettes with me. So, I decided to just find somewhere inside the market to smoke one stick and get back to the house.”

Umakhihe found a corner in the market where he began to smoke.

Unknown to him, this was the time that most shop owners took delivery of goods for the next day.

“While I was in a corner smoking, I saw a bike drive into the market and a man alighted from it and offloaded some goods.

“At first, he didn’t see me, but I’m sure he perceived the cigarette because he looked sideways and our eyes locked. Suddenly, this man began shouting, ‘Thief! Thief!’

“At first, I was confused. I thought maybe there was someone else present there with us that he was shouting at. I looked around, there was no one else. Before I could process my thoughts, two men came outside their stalls to meet the man who was now pointing at me, shouting that I was a thief. Those two guys then started running towards me.

“I initially wanted to wait to explain to them that I wasn’t a thief and I wasn’t guilty of any crime, but I remembered that this wasn’t my town. This was another part of Edo State where the people spoke a language different from mine. Besides, it was getting dark, so I decided to run. While I was running, the three men pursuing me kept shouting ‘Catch that guy, he’s a thief!’

“Almost everyone who heard their cries joined in the pursuit until there were more than 30 people chasing after me that evening. Yet, I never stole anything! How I managed to escape was just the grace of God because if those men had caught me that night, I know they would have killed me,” he stated.

For almost an hour, Umakhihe raced through street corners and uncharted bush paths until he reached a different area in the town where he decided to hide and rest.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t with my phone to call my girlfriend or anybody because I had left it in her room

“I later boarded a commercial bike and found my way back to my girlfriend’s hostel. When I arrived, she was already standing outside the gate anxious about my whereabouts because I wasn’t supposed to spend even five minutes outside

“She saw how I was breathing heavily and was restless and she knew something was wrong. I explained everything to her and she told me that I was lucky because they killed a guy around that area some time ago. I was shocked because the same thing could have happened to me.

“Since that day, I am always very careful of anything I do in a town I am new to. I will rather just sit at home than go outside to search for anything once it’s getting late,” he added.

In Nigeria, mob attacks are common and have been given different descriptions, including instant justice, jungle justice and public lynching.

According to a research consultancy, SBM Intelligence, no fewer than 391 people were reported killed by mobs across Nigeria between 2019 and May 2022.

However, based on documented reports, most of the victims might have been innocent because mobs often act on hysteria rather than evidence.

I was accused of being gay

For Olamide Lawanson, a 27-year-old Lagos bartender, his horrific experience in the hands of an irate mob has been a daytime nightmare.

Fighting back tears, the Badagry indigene narrated to our correspondent that he was on his way to a birthday party of a family friend in Awoyaya, in the Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos, when some assailants accosted him and accused him of being a homosexual.

He said, “It happened on Saturday, October 31, 2021. I can’t forget it that day. When I got to a junction close to the place around 6pm, the contact person sent by our family asked me to wait for him at Iya Ibeji Street.

“While I was waiting, a man walked up to me and asked what I was doing in the area and I thought he had been waiting for me. I initially thought he was the person my friend sent to bring me over until he led me to a small compound in the area where some cars were packed.

“Suddenly, he held my hand in a strong grip and called out four other guys, making them five in total. They were smoking weed with one of them wearing the Nigerian Army cap although I don’t think he was really a soldier. My heart began to pound heavily in fear.

“They surrounded me and started shouting at me. One of them began to film me on his phone and accused me of being a gay. I think it was a case of wrong identity. I think I felt into a trap set for someone else. I told them that I was innocent of the accusation. While I was talking, a barrage of slaps and punches landed on my face like bolts of lightning as they kept ordering me to take off my clothing. I refused.

“They forcefully stripped me naked right there and people gathered to watch me. As they descended on me with blows and kicks, I could hear people from different directions saying, ‘He is gay!’ ‘He is a criminal,’ ‘We will teach you a lesson!’ One of the men broke a bottle on the ground and they all forced me to kneel on its broken pieces. I cried out in pain and they jeered at me.

“One of them took my phone and looked through it but didn’t find anything related to being gay; he then accused me of being a ‘Yahoo boy’ and asked for my bank details and password. When I refused to divulge them, they beat me harder. They made me sit on the floor, gave me back my phone, and ordered me to call people that I knew to transfer money to them or they would kill me right there.

“One of them was already telling the others that they should look for a tyre and petrol to finish me. I was so weak from the beatings that I could barely see properly. I started to mumble a prayer to God to receive my soul because I knew I might not leave that vicinity alive.

“I called my boss at work and managed to tell him that I was being beaten by hoodlums who demanded money and he transferred money to them. He also appealed to them that I was innocent of the accusations. Two other friends I called also vouched for my innocence but they were forced to part with a sum of N200,000.”

Eventually, the men took Lawanson’s phone and left him.

Barely conscious and without the means to contact anyone, he became stranded in the area.

“At the gate leading into the street, two guys walked up to me and asked me what happened. I could barely talk and walk, I later slumped. They poured water on me and revived me. They told me that the area was a den of criminals; they chartered a taxi for me and paid my transport fare back home.

“My aunt rushed me to a hospital and I was admitted. I believed I survived through a miracle. I could have been killed there and no one would have known who I was. The flashbacks of my ordeal tormented me for months such that I couldn’t sleep or eat,” Lawanson added, wiping off his tears.

They called me a child kidnapper

An Ibadan-based teacher, Ibukun Adesina, was beaten to a pulp in 2020 when he went to process a job application.

The 30-year-old went to Bishop Phillips Academy in Iwo Road to make copies of his curriculum vitae and application letter when he realised he needed to purchase an envelope at a building close by.

Adesina said, “It was closing time for most schools and I saw some students passing by the shop. I called out to two students to help me sort out the copies of my application letter and CV and they obliged.

“I went to get the envelope but on returning to the centre, suddenly, out of nowhere, a tall, huge man accosted me and started harassing me, saying I cajoled a student and wanted to hypnotise him.

“Before I could explain myself, he started slapping me, shouting that I must be working with kidnappers who sent me to waylay one of their students. He didn’t even allow me to talk; he struck me with his fist and slapped me so hard that my eardrum was affected.

“He grabbed me by my shirt and dragged me through the gate of the secondary school. He ordered me to kneel and went to pick up a plank which he wanted to use to hit me on the head. The students around converged to watch the scene and some teachers at the gate on their way home just stood there, shouting and pointing their hands at me.”

In the midst of the pandemonium, a man, who was apparently one of the school’s staff, intervened and asked Adesina to explain himself.

He said he quickly explained that he only wanted to print his CV and application letter, as he presented evidence of his claim.

“The man listened to me and asked me to leave. I later heard that the man who assaulted me was the leader of a vigilance group hired by the school.

“Days later, determined to prove my innocence, I returned to the school and met their security men. They said there have been instances where students of the school were kidnapped and they apologised to me. This thing happened so fast and I was lucky that it did not escalate,” Adesina added.

I was branded a village thief

The event of September 2008 still remains indelible in the memory of Tochukwu Obi, a 39-year-old Abuja-based businessman.

Recalling his experience, the native of Umuoji, in the Idemili North Local Government Area of Anambra State, told Saturday PUNCH that he was accused of theft when he travelled to his hometown to receive some documents from his father.

“At the time, I had just graduated from the university and was living in Enugu while my parents resided in Lagos. My dad visited our hometown and asked me to come to see him because there were some documents of his shares he wanted to hand over to me.

“The next day, I set out to return to Enugu with the documents and I asked a commercial motorcyclist to take me to the motor park where I would board a bus.

“While I was on the bike, I saw a crowd of people walking toward us on the other side of the road. I noticed that they were armed with sticks, stones, bottles, and knives – they were a mob.

“Though I was surprised, I wasn’t bothered. After all, I didn’t commit any offence. The motorcyclist carrying me was supposed to pass through the crowd, but in fear, he retreated and took a detour into a bush path. I asked why he was afraid of them and even threatened to jump off his bike, but he cautioned me against that, as I could break my leg.

“We escaped the crowd but after a while, we encountered them again on another route and this time around, they were running towards us. It was then it struck me that the mob was chasing us,” Obi said in a voice tinged with disbelief.

He and the motorcyclist did not realise on time that a part of the mob was on a bus that was also trailing them.

Within a few minutes, the bus overtook and cornered them.

He recalled, “At that point, we alighted from the bike and I quickly looked around the area and saw some unarmed policemen in a place close by where a funeral service was being held. As the mob walked towards us, I thought the bike man was their target, until the first man got close and landed a slap on my face.

“The mob started to shout, ‘Beat him! We’ve caught the thief’ from different corners. I quickly ran to one of the policemen present there and told him ‘I didn’t do anything, I don’t know these people.’ He pushed me away, telling me to go and face my problem. The mob was apparently spearheaded by a vigilance group from a neighbouring village.

“There was a robbery incident the previous night in the village, so they were tracing the thieves. They had lost track of the thieves but they saw me and the bike man and assumed that I was a thief and they started chasing us.

“As the mob pounced on me and started beating me, the bike man started shouting, ‘He is not a thief, I picked him up in front of my in-law’s house; he’s innocent!’ They took my bag and found a few clothes and the documents my dad gave me in it. I held the documents up and started to scream, telling them to look at my name.”

Fortunately, Obi’s cries attracted the attention of some passersby, who wanted to know what really happened.

After listening to him and seeing the content of his bag, they deduced that he couldn’t have been one of the village thieves.

“One of the men in the crowd looked at me carefully and told the others that I wasn’t one of the thieves. That was how they left me alone; no apology was offered though.

“It was years later when I saw the video of the mob lynching of the students in Aluu, Port Harcourt, that I realised the magnitude of what happened to me. I narrowly escaped death,” Obi noted.

Orgies of mob violence

The public killing or humiliation of a victim over an unproved criminal act is barbaric behaviour that routinely happens across the country.

In October 2012, the lynching of four undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt in Omuokiri Aluu, in the Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, attracted national outrage.

The four undergraduates, Chidiaka Biringa, Kelechi Ugonna, Lloyd Toku, and Tekena Erikena, were labelled thieves and set ablaze by some members of the community over the alleged theft of a laptop and a BlackBerry phone.

In November 2016, an unidentified teenager who was alleged to have stolen a wallet was beaten and burnt by a mob at Alafia Bus Stop in the Orile area of Lagos State.

In December 2020, a mob descended on suspected thieves in Mowe, Ogun State.

Three of the five suspects were beaten to death before they were set on fire.

On May 12, 2022, Muslim students of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, stoned and battered a 200-level Home Economics student, Deborah Yakubu, to death.

Thereafter, they set the corpse ablaze.

A few days after this incident, commercial motorcyclists in Lagos State lynched and set ablaze a sound engineer, David Imoh, in the Lekki area following a misunderstanding between Imoh and a motorcyclist over a N100 balance.

In April 2023, a final-year student of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Okoli Ahize, was beaten to death by a mob on the university premises over an allegation of phone theft.

In the same month, a cab driver, Mr Tope Olorunfemi, whose vehicle reportedly crushed two people to death and injured others in the Ijoka area of Akure, Ondo State, was lynched while his vehicle was set ablaze by some indigenes who accused him of being a Yahoo boy (Internet fraudster).

Commenting on the horrific lynching of suspects, the President of the International Human Rights and Dignity Defenders Forum, David Vine, described mob justice as a gross violation of the right to life.

During an interview with our correspondent, he urged the government to take serious action against issues bordering on self-help justice by dealing decisively and swiftly with offenders.

Vine said, “This extrajudicial form of justice is indeed illegal, unconstitutional, barbaric, capricious, and highly inhuman. I strongly believe that the foremost of all fundamental human rights is the right to life because you need to have life to enjoy all other rights.

“In other words, the right to life is inalienable and sacrosanct. For the purpose of more emphasis on the legal position of the sacredness and importance of all human rights to life, Section 33(1) of the 1999 Constitution sufficiently provides for the right to life of every citizen.

“I must unequivocally state here that the onus is on the government to curb the barbaric act, especially the apex government, which is saddled primarily with the responsibility of protecting life and property. I must make it clear here again that more needs to be done to curb the menace of self-help justice by some miscreants who embark on jungle justice without recourse to trial by a court of law.”

On his part, the Executive Director of Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma, said the prevalence of mob actions reflected the depth of lawlessness the country had descended to.

He said, “The prevalence of mob violence in Nigeria reflects the character of the lawless state which subverts the rule of law. It’s also a consequence of dangerous indoctrination and religious extremism, a dysfunctional criminal justice system, and public loss of confidence in the system.

“When the state resorts to brute force and violence as the only response to crime and dissent; when the state does not observe the rule of law and chooses when not to obey orders made by its own courts; when the executive manipulates the judiciary and the legislature; when young people are bamboozled and indoctrinated with violent religious doctrines and teachings, mob violence is the result.

“When citizens lack confidence in the ability of law enforcement agents to impartially and effectively investigate and prosecute crime but pervert justice and are sometimes complicit in crimes, including extrajudicial killings, then the state provides the veritable environment in which mob violence becomes the only means to settle scores.”

Nwanguma also pointed out that citizens were only required to apprehend a crime suspect and hand him over to the police who had the duty to investigate and charge the person if found guilty.

“Everyone accused of committing a criminal offence is entitled to be presumed innocent until he or she has had a chance to appear before a court of competent jurisdiction where his guilt or otherwise would be proved or rebutted. This is due process.

“No one, not even law enforcement agencies, has the right or power to take laws into his hands or dispense justice as he wishes,” he added.

Mistrust, corruption cause mob actions – Lawyers

A human rights lawyer, Mr Kabir Akingbolu, said many Nigerians resorted to mob justice because they had lost trust in the country’s institutions.

He said, “There are different reasons why Nigerians resort to mob lynching. One of which is poor economic policies which have resulted in hunger and anger against the government. Therefore, people resort to violent protests, looting of shops, and lynching to demonstrate their anger – not at the allegations made against the suspect, but anger at others, and the victims can lose their lives.

“Another reason is the indiscipline of security agencies across the country. They have PoS machines with which they extort those they consider to be ‘Yahoo boys’ or Internet fraudsters or hardened criminals in millions of naira. These vices cut across all security agencies, even traffic officers. Until our security apparatus is overhauled, citizens will continue to resort to mob justice.

“Furthermore, there is sectionalism in the country, which sets one ethnic group against another based on negative profiling. It also rationalises violence against others. This needs to stop; we are all one, whether Yoruba, Igbo, or Hausa.

“When people are not seeing justice against criminals, they will devise their own means to deal with suspected criminals. This is not good for the country and it makes the country unsafe for everyone because anyone could be mistaken for a criminal and lynched by a mob. We should let the courts and security agencies do their jobs and determine who is truly a criminal.”

Similarly, another legal practitioner, Mr Richard Manuwa, told Saturday PUNCH that anyone who killed another in the name of mob action was liable to death by hanging if found guilty.

Manuwa said, “Our laws forbid self-help. Lynching and other forms of mob actions are forbidden likewise. Any person who kills another is liable to be sentenced to death by hanging when found guilty and it doesn’t matter in whatever circumstances the death occurred except for instances where the defence of provocation or self-defence will avail an accused person.

“However, such defences will not avail anybody in a lynching situation. People who engage in lynching get away because of the strict requirement of proof in a criminal matter – beyond a reasonable doubt. Besides, because of the number of persons forming a mob, it’s difficult to know identities let alone who did that and who did this.

“Corruption, incompetence, and a lack of proper equipment (DNA testing, forensic examinations, lie detectors, recorders for courts, and even at police formations)…Corruption is the most central. If you give an Investigating Police Officer as little as N50,000, the complainant can become the accused. Vital witness statements and medical reports can go missing. Postmortem reports can be tampered with, falsified, go missing, etc. The list is endless.”

He insisted that the problem was not the lack of laws against mob actions but the will to implement them. (Saturday PUNCH)

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