Amnesty International has raised the alarm over what it described as rising cases of mob action across the country and the urgent need to stem the menace.
The international organisation lamented that the menace is being fuelled by lack of deterrent measures, due largely to many factors, including poor or lack of diligent prosecution, absence of organised data, complex judicial justice system, complicity of community, religious extremism, ethnic jingoism, corruption, and a culture of impunity on the part of the ruling elites.
At a town hall meeting on Thursday in Lagos, AI said that from its ongoing tracking of cases, 64 cases of mob actions have been fully established across the country.
The rights group frowned at the situation where most, if not all, of the suspects involved in the cases have not been made to face any prosecutorial justice.
Speaking on the legal and human rights implications of the anomaly, Barbara S. Magaji highlighted the organisation’s chilling research findings and the necessity for immediate action.
According to her, “Investigations into the 64 fully established cases of mob actions across the country show that the cases are either closed or suspended, with suspects either released or not found to face the music.
“This includes the gruesome killing of Deborah and the unfortunate Alu 4, among others,” she said.
Deborah Suhaibu, the undergraduate student of Sokoto State University, was publicly stoned to death and her corpse burned, with the perpetrators boasting on camera that nothing could be done against them.
She was said to have made a derogatory comment against Prophet Muhammed on her school WhatsApp group, thereby incurring the wrath of the mobsters.
“As at the last meeting we were part of this year, the suspects connected to Deborah’s gruesome killing were arrested and arraigned. But we can tell that they have been released on bail now,” Mogaji said.
“We all know what happens to suspects who are released on bail for issues of that public interest. It is either they would run away or relocate elsewhere to avoid prosecutorial justice,” she added.
Amnesty International also lamented that Deborah had raised a distress call three days before her lynching, and the failure of the law enforcement agency and community actors to respond to the threat led to her untimely death.
The town hall meeting generated a heated discussion among stakeholders who attended the event, including human rights activists, journalists, lawyers, police, and policymakers.
While the trio of Benedicta Ofili, Helen Adah, and Samson Abobarin, all of the organisation, spoke extensively on the need to suppress the current headlining of mob violence in the media space, they also pleaded with stakeholders to join them in coordinating a strategic campaign for a counter-narrative against it.
“Mob action is also a product of illiteracy, poverty, and broken social values. We need to help people by organising public awareness around the need to reject the urge and embrace social justice values,” Ofili said.
Some of the stakeholders who expressed concern at the event include: Mrs. Eguavoen Zandra, Assistant Director with the National Orientation Agency; Comrade Kehinde Adegboyega, Executive Director of Human Rights Journalists Network; Shakirudeen Bankole, Founder and Executive Director, Frontline Advocacy Initiative; and Gold Adedeji, President, Human Rights Clinic, University of Lagos Chapter, among others.
Zandra of the National Orientation Agency said her agency has recently unveiled Boy and Girls Brigade, a special marshal in the mission to promote Nigerian cultural values of love, unity, and peace.
“This is one of the measures we are deploying to address the challenge of Mob Actions and other social menace in the country,” she said.
The duo of Adegboyega and Bankole established cases of mob action being carried out even by supposed law enforcement agencies, urging for recourse to the rule of law and a higher professional code of conduct.
Adegboyega said, “It is disturbing that some police stations that are supposed to serve as centres for justice are being used to conduct extra-judicial killing of suspects. We know of some of these police stations, and they are still committing this crime. If we want to address the issues of mob actions, we must look at it holistically,” he added.
“During the 2020 #EndSARS protest, for instance, people that engaged in looting of properties were rounded up in some places and extra-judicially killed. Without trials and defence, this also amounts to mob action. The laid-down rule says all offenders are entitled to fair hearing. The law enforcers need to be held to her level of professionalism also,” Bankole said.
The Lagos State Attorney General, Lawal Pedro (SAN), was also in attendance to provide policymakers’ perspective on the issue, especially on the administration of the justice system and state police.