An innocent Youth Corps member, Ereibor Tunere, narrowly escaped being lynched by an irate mob at Sunday Adewusi Housing Estate Dakwa, Deidei, Abuja over allegation of stealing.
Sunday Adewusi Housing Estate is a residential essentially for senior members of the Nigerian Police in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The incident, which took place at about 9:30 am on Saturday, September 26, 2021, started following a false alarm allegedly raised by one DSP Akin Akinremi serving with Force CID Area 11, Abuja.
The DSP whose posters are seeing all over the estate is said to be a contestant in the forthcoming election in the estate and by virtue of his closeness to the former executive is already parading himself as the chairman of the Estate.
Narrating his ordeal, Tunere explained that his sister was celebrating her birthday and needed a barbecue grey to have some meat roasted for her guests.
He stated that his sister, who lives within the estate called one of her friends who owns the barbecue grey and instructed him to go to her friend’s house to collect the stand.
According to him, he went as instructed and saw the Barbecue Charcoal Grill outside the fence but as he attempted to pick the Grill stand, DSP Akin Akinremi, sighted him and immediately shouted thieves which attracted the attention of neighbours who came out in their numbers and without asking questions started unleashing terror on him.
He said “I would have been killed and nobody would have known I was not a thief. When I tried to explain to the mob, nobody believed”.
“There is need for Police Command to identify those who participated in the mob action with a view to bringing them to justice.’’
“It is unfortunate that such a thing can happen within an estate where law enforcement agents are living. DSP Akin Akinremi is a senior police officer and ought to have known that it is only an investigation that can determine the truthfulness or otherwise of the allegations.
Tunere who said he almost died as a result of the attack added that he had instructed his lawyer to seek redress in court.
Speaking on jungle Justice, a lawyer, Tunde Awe, said “Jungle justice, as a matter of fact, violates the two cardinal principles of natural justice, namely that no one must be judged or condemned without fair hearing or trial, while the second is that you cannot be a judge in your own cause.”
According to him, lynching, has been described as a symptom of an uncivilised society or a practice associated more with the past, which, with modernisation and passage of time should have been jettisoned and consigned to history.
He stated that this horrendous practice survived up till now because the perpetrators are rarely prosecuted and punished.
He said, what happened to Ereibor Tunere is an indication that the country is still neck deep in this despicable practice; this is a country that is only laying false claim to civilisation and the rule of law.*
Yet, the citizens are yet to accept the fact that only the state is legally vested with the power to take life.
Being law abiding is the highest contribution one can make in the development of his society. Let’s be law abiding and say a very resounding “NO” to jungle justice – it is a crime against humanity, he added.
