USA Africa Dialogue Series - ALUU: Atrocities Loosened Upon Undergraduates

ALUU: Atrocities Loosened Upon Undergraduates   KAYODE KETEFE   The callous killing of four undergraduate students of the University of Port Harcourt on October 5, 2012, has plunged the country, (i.e. civilised peoples of the country) into anguish. The gargantuan amount of vitriolic condemnations already poured out on the pages of newspapers and social interactive media is reflective of outrage people feel for the act of antediluvian sadism unleashed on the innocent students. This monumental tragedy, which came on the heal of heinous massacre of innocent students in Mubi and inducing the reminiscences of the ten slain members of the National Youth Service Corps who were wasted in their prime last year, pointed darkly to how systemic failure of our socio-political life keeps costing the nation of its finest resources- the literates. The two attempts made by this writer to watch the video of the killings, ever since it had gone viral on the internet, were aborted at the point tyres were procured. One simply could not bear watching fellow human beings roasted; the instinctive inner revulsion stultified any urge to watch further. That was why one may ask some questions about the brutes who took the law into their hands whether they are human beings at all. How could any sane person descend to such infernal level of bestiality? Where were their fellow- feelings, empathy, their compassion and humanity? Even if Nigerian had been at war and those four students were the opposing soldiers. It would still have constituted a war crime if after being captured and overpowered, the victims were stripped naked beaten to pulp and set ablaze. No! Those people are simply not humans; they should be called animal beings! The rigorous discipline of administration of criminal justice evolved as a very cumbersome process because of the built-in checks and controls to ensure no miscarriage of justice ensues. As a matter of fact, the entire common law criminal jurisprudence is anchored on one philosophical cornerstone- that is is better to allow 20 criminal to escape than to allow one innocent person to be punished unjustly. In spite of all precautions, miscarriage of justice do at times occurs. But that at least is a manifestation of human imperfections at institutional level. The first piece of news making the rounds was that the youth were armed robbers, it is now established that they were nothing of the sort. They had reportedly gone to recover debt owed to one of them by a member of the community, who in an infernal bid to escape being distrained for the debt, resorted labeling the hapless undergraduates as robbers. The lives of these four young men were then cut short by an irresponsible, angry baying mob intoxicated with sadistic passion and devilish propensities. This shameful Aluu mob arrogated to themselves the prerogative to pronounce death sentence, sign the warrant of death and carry out the execution in defiance of law, order and civilised behaviour. No society that is functioning, no polity that is worth its name would condone anarchical and whimsical dispensation of justice by every aggrieved mob. The mob justice became popular in Nigeria in the early 1970s- a period that witnessed phenomenal increase in armed robbery as fallout of the civil war. It would be recalled that many arms and ammunition which were not returned by the combatants after the war fell into the wrong hands and were freely employed by the then burgeoning unemployed youths in terrorising the populace in robbery operations. The then military government reacted by promulgating a decree which made armed robbery punishable by death. But a section of the people felt there was sabotage in the system by the police because many suspects reportedly bribed their ways to freedom and impunity, thus they resorted to self-help. That is story of how the culture of mob killing and jungle justice was gradually entrenched in Nigeria. Matter unfortunately came to such a sorry pass that mob action became so popular among some Nigerians that it almost became an alternative criminal justice system to the conventional one. Unfortunately, the government till now has not been doing enough to curb the practice, as a matter of fact, the law enforcement agents themselves are often guilty of extra-judicial killings not to talk of torture and brutality. The blame over the death of the unfortunate students could therefore be put on the systemic failure. Where does one start from? The community that promotes a resort to primitive carnage to cleanse itself of perceived threat of armed robbery is unenlightened and backward. The civil policing system that does not inspire confidence in people that it could offer them protection of lives and properties is a menace to the society. The entire security network that could not respond promptly to save lives of innocent citizens who were being wrongly lynched also carried a heavy blame. The nation must of necessity and urgently find a way to stop this kind of practice. It is a monumental tragedy that Nigeria is battling with this kind of things in the 21st century. The perpetrators of these killings must be made to pay for their crime.

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