Senate passes Bill seeking to outlaw Jungle Justice, kidnapping, other vices
The bill by the Senate to end the menace of jungle justice, act of kidnapping and other social vices, took the center stage during Wednesday Plenary scaled the hurdle of Second Reading.
Senator Dino Melaye (APC, Kogi West) had sponsored the Bill titled “Prohibition and Protection of Persons from Lynching, Mob Action and Extra-judicial Executions”
The Bill had earlier been passed for First Reading on the floor of the Senate in 11th August, 2015
Melaye in his lead debate said that cases of extrajudicial killing abound in Nigeria, just as he alluded to the extrajudicial killings recorded in 2012 referred to as the ALUU 4 during which four young undergraduates from the University of Port Harcourt were battered and burnt alive.
He said the Nigerian Constitution noted that every Nigerian citizen is entitled to some fundamental rights well reflected in the Nigeria’s Constitution in Chapter Four.
It reads, ”Every person has the right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of
his life, save the execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria (section 33(1)”.
He also drew attention to section 34 on the right to dignity of person, stating, “No person shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment in any form by anybody without recourse to the law of the land.
He said “Even the Bible dictates that we should not kill, hence people should stop the application of jungle justice because of its many consequences.
Melaye added, “Similar incidents of judging and putting to death without lawful trials are
recorded daily nationwide. On a single day in July, 1999, a suspected robber was laced with a motor tyre and set ablaze and four hotels suspected to be the robbers’ hideouts burnt by mobsters in Onitsha.
“The APO killings are evergreen, the killings of motor drivers for N20 bribe and the killings of suspects in police custody.
Melaye lamented to rate of jungle justice in Nigeria and how the act has been flourishing to the extent that at the shout of ”thief” as a form of alarm, many would troop out to visit a jungle justice on any perceived victim.
He said some Nigerians creditors had raised such a combustible alarm to deal ruthlessly with any debtor they considered as insolvent.
He said the failure of the law enforcement agencies to properly handle cases involving armed robbers, ritualists, kidnappers and others have been the reason angry Nigerians used to take jungle justice as an option, adding “people are compelled to fight with their backs to the wall and to dispense jungle justice in the absence of intervention by the law enforcement agents.
