The killing of at least 16 travelling hunters by a mob in the southern Nigerian state of Edo has sparked outrage and once again raises serious questions about ‘‘jungle justice’’ and whether enough is being done to tackle it in the West African country.
The victims were travelling back home on Thursday from the southern city of Port-Harcourt to the northern city of Kano to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr with their families when a group of local vigilantes intercepted their vehicle and dragged them down in the town of Uromi in Edo state.
A mob then collected the men, doused them with petrol and burnt them to death on suspicion of being kidnappers – a claim the victims had frantically denied. At least 10 of the travellers escaped, some with various degrees of wounds, according to local media.
Some of the survivors told local media that they were returning home from a traditional hunting expedition with their tools, including dogs and den guns, when the incident happened. They were falsely accused of being a kidnapping gang and that their attempts to explain themselves to the local vigilantes were abortive.
Kidnappings for ransom by armed groups are rampant across Nigeria, but analysts say the latest incident of mistaken identity has added another sad dimension to the problem.
President Tinubu vows action
The way and manner the victims were ''killed unjustly'' shows the ''level and gravity of inhumanity'' of the perpetrators, Abdullahi Yalwa, a criminologist with the Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic in the northern city of Bauchi, tells TRT Afrika.
Community leaders, politicians and activists as well as ordinary citizens across Nigeria roundly condemned the killings, with many calling for calm given the communal and regional tensions the mob action sparked.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has since ordered an investigation, vowing ‘’criminals would not be allowed to shed the blood of innocent Nigerians in vain.’’
Kidnap-for-ransom has spiralled into "a crisis out of control" in Nigeria, with abductions reported regularly despite the government intensifying security operations in hotspot areas.
President Tinubu described the attack as ‘’dastardly’’ and ‘’directed police and other security agencies to conduct swift and thorough investigations and punish the suspected culprits.’’
’’Jungle justice has no place in Nigeria, and all Nigerians have the freedom to move freely in any part of the country,’’ Tinubu said, according to a statement by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga.
This is the latest incident of deadly mob actions in Nigeria. A report by the rights group, Amnesty International, said between 2012 and 2023, at least 555 people were killed in 363 mob actions, mainly in the southern part of the country.
Vigilantes excesses
The group has strongly condemned the latest killing of travellers and urged the authorities to do more in stemming the tide of mob actions.
“The horrific mob violence that happened at Uromi is part of the rising trend of vigilante groups of towns and villages along highways blocking roads and carrying out unlawful activities with impunity,’’ Amnesty International’s Director in Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, said in a statement.
Criminologist Abdullahi Yalwa also calls for stronger action by the Nigerian authorities.
''If those who take laws into their hand are left to go scot-free as it is used to be, then the cycle will continue,’’ he says.
''Local vigilantes should exercise security duties based on their efforts to support the formal security agencies, to liaise and collaborate with as well as assist them. They should not, in any way, become a self-adjudging authority,’’ Yalwa adds.
’’Even if there is any genuine complaint against anybody, such person should be apprehended and handed over for an in-depth investigation and prosecution,’’ the security analyst says.
What police are doing
’’There is no where in the law of Nigeria anybody, including even the formal security agencies, is empowered to kill in this horrendous manner in which these travellers were killed in Edo,’’ he stresses.
At least 14 suspects have been arrested in connection with the lynching of the travellers, police spokesperson Olumuyiwa Adejobi said in a statement.
The police assured that anyone found culpable will ‘’face the full weight of the law’’, while condemning the killings.
’’The Force warns the public to desist from taking the law into their hands and encourages the prompt reporting of suspicious activities to lawful authorities,’’ the police statement added.
''We must beef up training for these local security outfits and ensure they act within the confines of the law and relate with the authorities in order to ensure that things are done rightly in all manners and circumstances,’’ security analyst Abdullahi Yalwa suggests.
