The increasing rate of abduction in Kwara State has put destitute persons who wander within the capital, Ilorin, at great risk as some of them now fall victim of mob action on mere suspicions of being child kidnappers. At the last count, no fewer than four suspected kidnappers who were alleged to have feigned insanity have been killed in mob attacks. In all the cases, the hapless victims were beaten to coma before being burnt alive. Residents and the police differ sharply on the current situation with the latter voicing its displeasure over what it called the increasing propensity of residents to take the laws into their hands in dealing with suspected kidnappers.

This recourse to savagery which is fast becoming a national pastime is bewildering as it does not matter the supposed crime levelled against those caught in the web of this new wave of jungle justice. What is more worrisome is that a lot of times, innocent citizens are often the victims of these mob actions. From the four innocent undergraduates of the University of Port Harcourt brutally hacked down to the Lagos State University (LASU) students similarly killed recently by a mob in Badagry, it is rather worrying that primitive justice is fast taking over our land. This means that just being on a street corner, looking a little like someone accused of a crime the day before or even being a victim of witch-hunt, could cost one his or her life.

What can be responsible for this ugly development? Is it failure of law enforcement or signs of a more dangerous national ailment?  Or is it that human life is no longer sacrosanct in Nigeria? The answer is a combination of the three. What is however rather troubling is that the propensity for dispensing this brand of justice is becoming increasingly high in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital where three suspected cultists were last week burnt alive by irate mob after some vigilante group ambushed them. The suspected cultists, numbering about 30, had allegedly performed some initiation rites in a bush along the airport road before they were apprehended by some members of a vigilante group.

In his account of the incident, the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr. Femi Fabode, said the three suspects who were already burnt beyond recognition before officers and men of the command arrived the scene, were cultists who were mistaken for armed robbers. According to Falode, “Information gathered was that on Saturday night armed robbers were hiding in a bush behind NASFAT village along airport road, Ilorin. This prompted various vigilante groups in the communities around the place to mount sentry on all roads that lead to the bush and waited until early hours of the morning when the Aiye confraternity completed their initiation.  Unsuspectingly, they ran into the ambush laid by the various vigilante groups while people mistook them for armed robbers and opened fire on them”.

Whether the suspects were cultists or armed robbers, killing them as the mob did was wrong. The Kwara State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Prince Tunji Moronfoye who said police was still investigating the matter, has pointed out that the state government is unhappy with the way people take laws into their hands by dispensing jungle justice. But the government has to do more. They must fund the police and expand their capacity to carry out their constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property while the courts must be alive to their own responsibilities.