By Sunny Anderson Osiebe
The Bill is known as Anti-Jungle Justice Bill, 2016 and is sponsored by Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi). And according to Melaye, the proposed law seeks to provide for the prohibition and protection of persons from lynching, mob action and extra-judicial executions.
The Bill, which scaled the Second Reading hurdle in the Senate late last year, was earlier read for the first time on the floor of the Red Chamber on Thursday, August 11, 2015.
Leading the debate on the Bill, Melaye noted that according to the 1999 Constitution, every Nigerian citizen is entitled to some fundamental rights, one of which is stipulated in the constitution’s chapter four, which reads in part: “Every person has the right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save the execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria" (Section 33(1).
He pointed out Section 34 on the right to dignity of his person, which prescribes that: “No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment…,” adding that the holy Bible dictates that we should not kill, hence people should stop the application of jungle justice because of its many consequences.
"In this country, cases of extrajudicial killing abounds. These includes the senseless killings in Aluu of undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt in 2012 popularly known as ’Aluu 4” in which four young men were battered and burnt alive. The gory video footage spread on YouTube like wildfire.
"Also in 2014, a certain female was stripped naked and beaten because she stole a phone. The pretty woman was caught with a stolen phone and she was sexually manhandled and beaten to pulp by an angry mob, the list is endless," Melaye said.
There is no gainsaying the fact that the proposed law if it eventually see the light of the day would do a lot of justice to the Nigerian society because of the prevalence of jungle justice perpetrated by street urchins and other criminal minded people.
It suffice here to say that over the years, similar incidents of judging and putting human beings to death without a lawful trial are recorded daily nationwide.
According to the sponsor of the Bill, on a single day in July, 1999, a suspected robber was laced with a motor tyre and set ablaze and four hotels suspected to be the robbers’ hideouts burnt by mobsters in Onitsha.
"The Apo killings are evergreen, the killings of motor drivers for N20 bribe and the killings of suspects in police custody. The practice of “Jungle Justice” has so flourished in Nigeria that an evasive shout of “thief, thief” has become a combustible alarm sounded by insolvent debtors to consume their creditors," he added.
Melaye however explained that people resort to mob action because law enforcement agencies have failed in their responsibility of handling arrested criminals like armed robbers, ritualists, kidnappers etc, in the country’s cities and commercial centres where residents are being terrorized, wantonly killed and robbed without hindrance, as if policemen never existed, hence the people are compelled to fight with their backs to the wall and to dispense jungle justice.
He noted that a situation where such criminals
after being caught and handed over to the security agencies
but are latter seen marauding on the streets without trials infuriate the
citizens and the resultant effect is the application of instant justice as an
alternative.
"Sadly, most victims of this act as the case of the 'Aluu 4' has revealed, were innocent of the case against them. Though sometimes we can relatively say that no reason is good enough for these actions to happen, but sometimes the perpetrators of this act have been pushed to wall," he argued.
The Bill therefore seeks to discourage the use of jungle justice by ensuring that the wheel of justice is well oiled so that it will run without friction. This will ensure that perpetrators of crime are brought to justice. Likewise, those who take laws into their hands because the people in charge of justice are perceived not to be performing their functions properly.
He told his fellow lawmakers that the Bill has no consequential financial implication on government if passed into law as it will only strengthens criminal justice system and guard against human rights violation.
END.
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