Enactment of a law to protect the rights of victims of murder, as advocated recently by the family of the late former Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed, is critical to building a just, peaceful and egalitarian society. When families of victims are unable to get justice for the unjustifiable killing of their loved ones, and bottle up their anger against the state, it has dire consequences for the society. Sadly, this country is replete with too many instances of unresolved murder where the unlawful killers are not found or are not prosecuted, thus free from answering for their criminal deed. Such situations, as lamented by the late Mohammed family, violate the rights of murder victims.

Family of the late military ruler, Murtala Mohammed, made the call recently at the 30th remembrance in Lagos of their son and brother, 27-year-old Zakari Mohammed, a graduate of Finance from the University of Canterbury, Kent, who was shot dead in Abuja on August 13, 1993. Dr. Aisha Mohammed-Oyebode, who made the position of the family known, expressed disgust at the way murder trials are being handled in Nigeria. “Precisely 30 years ago, the life of our cherished brother was cut short. Though the perpetrators were positively identified, all efforts to prosecute the case failed during the preliminary investigation and arraignment phase.”

According to her, the entire procedure was shrouded in confusion, and the ultimate conclusion was a glaring miscarriage of justice. To put a stop to similar developments in the future, the Murtala family craved enactment of a legislation that protects the rights of victims throughout the complex corridors of the criminal justice system and reflects the spirit of the nation, noting that on a global scale, victims’ rights are recognised as an essential component of human rights.

Murder, which is simply the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another, has been committed by many criminally-minded people on their fellow human beings for a myriad of reasons. Countries or societies, including Nigeria, believe in the sanctity of human life, and try to preserve the same through their laws. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), under Fundamental Rights, states that, ‘‘Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria.”

Despite this constitutional provision, murder is still perpetrated for political, economic, and religious and other reasons in the country. From time to time, people, including prominent citizens, are killed for unknown reasons and their families thrown into perpetual sorrow while the killers walk about freely on the streets without being brought to justice due, most times, to inefficiency and complicity of the law enforcement agencies as well as unduly long period of prosecution that ends up undermining the cases. In other climes, murder cases are treated swiftly and diligently, as security agencies in those nations swing into action to arrest, investigate and prosecute the masterminds and appropriately punish those found guilty. In Nigeria, the police frequently disappoint by the shoddy way they investigate and prosecute murder cases that get the culprits eventually freed even when culprits confess to the crime. The situation has consequences for the society as families of the victims of unlawful killings remain in everlasting anguish and their demands for justice are never assuaged.

Too many murder cases in Nigeria have remained unresolved. They include high profile cases such as that of former governor of old Oyo State, Chief Bola Ige, who was killed in December 2001 while serving the nation as attorney general of the federation and minister of justice; prominent journalist, Mr. Dele Giwa, who was murdered by a parcel bomb in his Lagos home in October 1986; pro-democracy activist, Kudirat Abiola, wife of the presumed winner of the annulled 1993 presidential election, Chief M.K.O Abiola, who was killed in 1996 while her husband was in detention for his struggle to regain his mandate; Funso Williams, a PDP governorship aspirant in Lagos State who was murdered at his home in Dolphin Estate, Ikoyi; Aminosoari Dikibo, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South-South. There were also the cases of a deaconess of the Divine Touch Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God and mother of seven, Eunice Olawale, who was murdered in July 2016 while evangelising between 5:a.m. and 5:30 a.m. in her neighbourhood in Abuja; former Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, who was murdered in December 2018 while returning from his farm, and was the only person killed out of the three occupants of the vehicle taking them; National Vice-Chairman of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Muhammadu Buhari’s presidential campaign coordinator in 2003, Marshall Harry who was brutally murdered in his Abuja residence before the 2003 presidential election, and Otunba Dipo Dina, the 2007 Action Congress (AC) governorship candidate in Ogun State, who was assassinated in January 2010 in Ota area of the state.

Although these cases hit the limelight because of the huge political status of the victims, they actually constitute a tiny fraction of unsolved murders across the country. More than 10 years ago, a young pregnant woman, Amina Ogunbadejo was brutally killed, along with her unborn baby, by an assailant who disappeared into thin air afterwards. Even though the victim, before she died, identified and named him as a neighbour who was owing her a paltry sum of money, the police neither traced nor brought him to justice, obviously due to their inefficiency. It is worrisome that till today, the families of the victims continue to suffer the trauma of their sudden deaths.

The dead person may be gone and not able to reveal or fight the killers, but the failure to resolve the murder has serious effects on the family and the society. Family members of murdered individuals are always at the risk of suffering prolonged depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The fear and uncertainty that come with unresolved murder can also have lasting effects on the mental and emotional wellbeing of the relatives. The family of an assassinated person often experience a feeling of injustice when they perceive that the killers of their loved ones are getting or have gotten away with the heinous crime and the loss of life is not receiving the desired attention. The family and friends of the deceased become frustrated, and citizens lose respect in the criminal justice system. The trending issue of Ilerioluwa Aloba, also known as Mohbad remains a source of concern for the music community, especially as there are threats of protests and civil disobedience.

The society, represented by the government that makes it a grievous crime for a person to unlawfully terminate the life of another person has a responsibility to ensure that the victim gets justice when the crime is committed against him. Where the criminal justice system often fails to bring closure to cases of murder, families of the victims are tempted into taking the law into their hands by going after the perceived or suspected killers, a situation that may result in recurring assassinations. For peace and justice to reign, the law enforcement agencies, particularly the police, must handle murder cases with the seriousness they deserve, without bias and in a way that justice will be seen to be served.

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