… the adrenaline and emotion you get can be compared to the one a quick sexual intercourse gives you.
It could be “Thief! Thief!!“, “She stole my genitals!” or “He’s gay” – just any indicting phrase that could cause a victim to be crushed under dozens of feet, beaten to a pulp, stripped naked or even burned to death. It is called jungle or mob justice, and it is popular among several Nigerian communities in a hurry to bring to justice a suspect whose actions are deemed anti-social.
All it took Daniel Chibuzor, a 30-year-old commercial bus driver in Lagos, to be lynched was an accusation of theft from a couple he had only overtaken in traffic. He had never met them until February 27, when the incident happened.
Chibuzor told FIJ that the couple had stalked him for some good distance without his knowledge until they got to a junction where traffic had built up and they pounced on him with the accusation, “Thief! Thief!”
“The woman and her husband were waiting for me at the junction after I overtook them, unknown to me. I arrived there just after making a delivery run for a colleague, and she jumped out of their vehicle, opened the passenger door of my mini-bus and began to shout, ‘Thief! Thief!’”
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Chibuzor said the alarm was attractive, as it instantly sent dozens of people to the scene.
“These people didn’t come empty-handed. They came prepared with bottles, planks, wood and all sorts of weapons they could lay hands on. I was in shock,” he said.
“I saw my life flash before my eyes and started to run with my bus.”
“To the executors of this justice, no one cares to know if the alarm was false or if nothing at the scene of the incident lent credence to it; what mattered was that a thief had been caught and needed to be taught a brutal lesson,” Ogundele, a Lagos resident who believes in mob executions of suspects, told FIJ.
Besides the pieces of weapons easily lying around to be picked up at a public execution scene, the excessive show of cruelty and barbarism is also contagious. The mantra is that one more unjust person is being flushed out of the society.
“People were trooping out of different places with weapons, and none of them cared to ask what I had stolen; they simply joined in chanting the chorus and advanced towards me menacingly,” Chibuzor said.
According to SB Morgen, an African intel-gathering firm, in a 2024 report on mob violence, at least one person was killed in a mob execution every week between May 2022 and June 2024.
The intelligence firm gathered that these crimes were not limited to robbery, the commonest, which got 84 people murdered publicly within the timeframe.
“The leading cause of mob violence remains accusations of robbery,” the report revealed.
“Other crimes: force brutality, murder, attempted robbery and witchcraft including robbery, triggered 288 mob actions and killed 277 in two years.”
More incidents of accusations were recorded in the south west, where Chibuzor nearly lost his life, than in any other region in Nigeria.
“We find that southern Nigeria continues to be a more dangerous place for anyone publicly accused of petty crimes,” the report stated.
WHY PUBLIC EXECUTION?
Just as dusk settled in on FESTAC Town, Lagos, on June 20, an unidentified robbery suspect was caught in his attempt to vandalise electrical cables in Block 2, L Close, 24 Road. Upon apprehending him, the residents beat him to a pulp before handing him over to the police.
On a visit to the community nine days later, FIJ found Tayo Fatomi, a middle-aged woman with brown dreads and chubby cheeks. Tayo sat under a white umbrella in a way that the sun’s rays added to her bubbly personality.
She said that the suspect had first been caught by residents of 7th Avenue, the same neighbourhood, while attempting to cart off with their electrical cables. They allowed him to go after simply throwing a few punches, kicks and slaps his way, said Tayo. However, he left only to penetrate L Close for the same crime.
She added that the practice of electrical vandalism is particularly prevalent in their neighbourhood so no one was willing to spare the suspect after he was caught. According to pictures made available to FIJ, after the suspect was caught in his attempt to flee that night, he was beaten and stripped before being handed to the police.
“The act of stealing electrical cables has been rampant in this part of town for as long as I can remember. A lot of these guys go around, enter private residences and then cart off with the cable supplying power,” she told FIJ.
“You will just wake up to discover that a thief was in the building over the night and you have been disconnected from power. This means that cables belonging to an entire block had vanished before daybreak. And this thing costs a lot of money. They are ancient cables, and you will have to pay through your nose to replace them.
“This guy entered Block 2 in L Close when there was no light and was caught while attempting to yank off the cables from the wall. A small boy saw him and asked who it was, but he ran out and left his footwear and jacket behind. Unfortunately for him, the resident caught up with him and decided to deal with him.”
Photo Credit: FIJ
Tayo said dealing with him themselves meant that he was taught a remarkable lesson in a bid to make him desist from the crime or never visit their neighbourhood again even if he didn’t stop the trade. She said the action was not to kill but to inflict irreversible scars on the suspect.
“In my view, even if you do not beat a suspect caught in the act, give such a person an everlasting mark,” she said with a raise in her voice that was previously absent. “You can cut off their hands or their legs so they don’t ever return to the crime.”
When FIJ pointed out that this was in itself mob execution, she smiled while moving to the edge of the seat. “People decided to beat him themselves because if they ever handed him over to the police, they wouldn’t do anything and he might even pay his way through. The police could come back to say something had happened to him in detention; he might even escape. Well, we did hand him over to the police, but he was taught a lesson.”
STREET JUSTICE TO LET OFF ANGER
Several blocks away from where Fatomi sat, I met Damilare Ajayi and Femi Ogundele. They both sat under a tree which formed a canopy from intertwining with other trees. It was a lazy Saturday afternoon, and Damilare, a young adult, dark-skinned with a firm expression, had his legs stretched out in front of him. He smiled often to reveal his near-perfect dentition.
Just behind Ajayi’s head, on a table that rose nearly to a quarter of the tree’s length, was Femi. He spotted a white singlet and had a point of sale (PoS) machine in his left hand as he dangled his foot.
When I first met them, Ajayi sat on a white plastic chair, while Ogundele slept on his left side facing the tree. However, they both sprang up when I asked if they knew about the guy who was caught in his attempt to vandalise cables in L Close some nine days earlier and why they thought beating and stripping him was the right punishment.
Ajayi went first, “Has your phone been stolen before? Now, if you see that person, what will you do to the person? Has a thief ever entered your house while you are sleeping and taken everything important, including your TV? Don’t forget that this person came at night, because if it happened during the day, you might overpower him.
To this, I nodded my head in affirmation and attempted to open my mouth, but before I could, he was quick to continue.
“Great! So, if you see someone elsewhere who has committed a similar crime, will you just let the person go?
“No!” He answered, even before I could. “You were looking for reasons people participate in jungle justice, and these are some of them.”
In support, Ogundele said, “Anyone who argues that people who participate in jungle justice are criminals has not had anything stolen from him.”
On whether public execution is an attempt at sanitising the society, Ogundele said it rather serves as a deterrent and a means of exerting anger for what is gone.
“Mob lynching is not a step to sanitise the society of crime but to act as a deterrent to other people who might be involved with the same crime and then a means of exerting your anger from a previous experience on the suspect who has been caught,” he said.
“I disagree it is a means of flushing out more criminals because real sanitisation would mean prosecuting the person through the police and showing up in court as a witness until the person is convicted.”
Benjamin Ochuko, a young man with a lean frame and soft smile, who runs a small phone store in the area, also said he wished he had got the chance to join in the suspect’s punishment to cool off his anger and also act as a deterrent.
“If I was around, I would also have beaten the thief because, what other punishment would you have suggested?” He asked.
“Everyone is scared of electricity, but you had the guts to steal its cables after people had kept their wires safely. Look at my shop now, people had to depend heavily on it because a thief stole their cables and they could not be supplied power. The inconvenience was almost unbearable.”
Referring to the mob who had nearly lynched him and how people exert anger on others, Chibuzor said, “A lot of the people who accused me of robbery and nearly lynched me on that day didn’t even know me. And those who knew me, who knew I would never steal didn’t bother; they also joined the mob. One particular guy, whom I had never met, wore an army camouflage and rode on a power bike. He used this power bike to run after me and my bus and broke my side mirror just to catch up with me.”
A FAULTY POLICING AND JUDICIAL SYSTEM
Fatomi, Ajayi and Ogundele agreed that people who get involved in jungle justice are those who have lost faith in policing and the judicial system. They said people would rather execute judgment with their hands than allow a corruption-ridden system to do so.
“A lot of people participate in street justice because they do not trust the police. Anyone who tells you they trust the police is a thief or has a brother in the police force. I have no faith in the police because I can always count on them to bail me when I commit a crime,” he said.
When I asked if they had ever participated in street lynching, both men responded with throaty laughter before chorusing, “Yes.”
Describing the emotions felt while lynching another human, Ajayi told FIJ, “It brings a feeling of happiness that’s more than I can ever describe.”
“See, we wanted to throw one guy inside this manhole for stealing a table,” he said, pointing at a manhole which had lost the original concrete covering and was now covered with a wooden slab.
“You know what the inside of a manhole looks like, right? We wanted to put that guy we caught inside for stealing the table and damaging it.”
Ogundele also added, “When you participate in the public execution of a suspect caught in the act, the adrenaline and emotion you get can be compared to the one a quick sexual intercourse gives you. Your blood courses through your body with excitement, and you will feel on top of the world.”
Ajayi believes firmly in the justice of street lynching and says he has never regretted partaking in one. “I wish I had had more instances of serving justice on suspects accused of various crimes. My only regret is that I didn’t do more. The suspect who was caught around L Close – I was so pained I wasn’t around to witness it; I would have contributed my own quota of beating. I arrived an hour after the incident, and I nearly cried that I missed it.”
Ogundele, supporting his friend again, said he wouldn’t have dealt with the suspect with his bare hands but would have showed up at the scene with weapons to inflict injury.
“In my case, I wouldn’t have used my hands. I would have got a plank and hit it just behind his neck,” he said.
He pointed at one of the flat rectangular wooden slabs close to him on the floor and said, “We actually keep things like this around in case we catch a thief.”
“We also have different pieces of aluminium positioned at different places just if we have to deal with a thief.”
ANALYSIS: WHY SUPPORT OR PARTICIPATE IN JUNGLE JUSTICE?
FIJ analysed 100 random tweets of X users reacting to different jungle justice incidents in Nigeria in the last two years. The reasons people would be involved in street lynching were the metric for this analysis.
These analysis reveals that a lot of the people who participate in jungle justice do so because they think the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has lost its efficiency. Some others attributed it to a huge distrust of the Nigerian judicial system and its lack of transparency in prosecuting suspects.
A few of them do it simply because lynching a suspect makes them happy or they want to feel the satisfaction of doing so. However, some also admit that if they don’t perform street justice on a suspect, they will get away with the crime.
The incidents referred to in the sampled tweets vary from false robbery accusations to witchcraft accusations, actual robberies, false genital stealing and blasphemy. A lot of the victims in these cases did not survive the lynching, while the few who did had scars and trauma.
One of such reactions was that society would be unliveable without jungle justice. Twenty-three percent of the tweeps said that the failure of the NPF was the reason they would involve themselves in street justice. Closely behind them were the six percent who said they had no faith in the judiciary to prosecute suspects appropriately.
Further, eight percent of the sample population admitted to lynching a suspect for the sheer fun of it. Their tweets indicated they derived pleasure from being at a crime scene. Similar to this, six percent of the tweets were of X users admitting to contributing actively to street justice.
Also, twenty-one percent stated that they would punish a suspect immediately to ensure justice. They admitted that delaying justice for the crime could mean escape for the suspect.
The larger part of this sample were people who admitted that anyone who contributes to public executions of suspects is a criminal only waiting for an event to reinforce it. Thirty-six percent agreed that executors of street lynchings are themselves criminals worse than the victim.
CRIMINALS IN DISGUISE?
The fallibility of the jungle justice system can’t be overlooked, as innocent people could be caught in its web, which often gives no room for trial. The people accused of various crimes are often given no room to speak until their death or until someone vindicates them with convincing evidence or the police step in.
Also, the people who engage in street lynching, while stripping the victim, are often fond of robbing them of their personal belongings.
Chibuzor told FIJ that while the mob dealt with him and accused him of unverified robbery, they stole N15,000, his earnings for that day, from him and also attempted to rob him of his iPhone.
“While I was on the floor and they were beating me, I caught someone dipping his hands into my back pocket to take my iPhone, but I grabbed the person’s hand until he let go of it. After this, he continued to beat me and acted like nothing happened,” he said.
“I saw death coming for me. It was so obvious, and while still there, I lost all the money I had made that day just before the incident. How they took it from me, I don’t know. Meanwhile, it was a general beating, and the people beating me from every angle picked it from my pocket. I couldn’t tell who these people were or where they came from; everyone just wanted their turn of beating.”
Alex Akpo, a 200-level student of the Ajayi Crowther University (ACU), was beaten, stripped and killed by his fellow students on May 25.
The late student, who was studying mechanical engineering, was alleged to have stolen a mobile phone and transferred money from it into his sports betting account. Before he died from the excessive beating he received from his colleague, his hair was shaved. His body was discovered the following day.
Also, on May 12, Deborah Samuel, a second-year student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, was mobbed and burned to death by a group of Muslim students who accused her of blasphemy against their religion.
Following her death, two suspects, who would be defended by 34 legal practitioners, were arrested. The suspects, who were charged with criminal conspiracy and inciting public disturbance, were later acquitted.
On April 1, Muyiwa Adejobi, the spokesperson of the Nigeria Police Force, emphasised the criminality of jungle justice and how it violates the human rights of the accused person. “Jungle justice is a criminal act and grave violation of human rights that threatens the fabric of a civilized society, perpetuating a cycle of violence, prejudice, and lawlessness,” he said.
‘NO JUSTICE IN JUNGLE JUSTICE’
Now fully recovered but with scars and trauma, Chibuzor told FIJ that he was rescued from the public lynch by someone who intended to hit a glass on the back of his neck but gave him a chance to speak.
“While the mob reined in on me with all they could lay their hands on, I saw someone approach me with a glass. From his stance, I knew he wanted to hit the object on my neck. I looked into his face and saw he was an Igbo man and made a quick decision to plead for my life,” Chibuzor said.
“I told him I was innocent and would be glad if he helped me ask the people accusing me of what I stole from them. He listened to me and asked the mob to stop beating me. He then asked what I’d stolen and the couple said the woman’s bag and her phone.
“This man asked if I truly stole it, but I responded in the negative. I even showed him the iPhone I had with me. He then ordered a search into the couple’s car, where, surprisingly, the exact thing I was accused of stealing was found.
“Instantly, the atmosphere changed and the mob started to disperse one after the other, leaving me to my fate on the floor.”
He paused and then continued, “There is no single justice in jungle justice.”
Editor’s note: Some names have been changed to protect sources.
This report was produced with support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA).
