The Need to Deal Decisively With Mob Action in the FCT -By Ifeanyichukwu George

As the Barrister Nyesom Wike-led federal capital territory administration is coming very hard on all forms of criminal, violent and terrorist activities perpetuated within the environs of the FCT; I think that it was high time we included in the going conversation of effectively curtailing insecurity; the subject of dealing decisively with mob action. There is no doubt that mob action has translated into a serious issue of concern especially lately, going by the daily reports of young men and women who lose their precious lives in the name of jungle justice.

The seriousness of the dire situation we find ourselves as a people with regards to mob action is such that false alarms now had the uncanny ability of causing or congregating a mob within a twinkle of an eye! Right before us and, in a country that is supposedly compliant to the global rule of law mentality of governance; miscreants – in the name of enforcing justice – are steadily pushing law and order aside as well as kicking into the gutters our courts of law. The amazing part of this ugly trend is that constituted authorities like the Police are not asserting self enough.

Thus making one to wonder who exactly was in charge of the FCT; the elected constituted authority or the miscreants. Now since January, mob action has claimed more than a hundred lives that can be rightly considered as innocent. I recall that in that month for example, it took only the rumors of stolen (or snatched?) penis to start a mob action. Several persons would lose their lives and; a loud and angry cry would come from the residents of the FCT, the media as well as from the civil society organization before the Police would think of stepping in.

Miscreants took advantage of something as preposterous as disappearance of a penis to lay their dirty hands on fellow citizens with as much right to live and to fair hearing as their killers! In one of the sad incidences that happened at that time; the one that occurred in Minna, Niger state still filled me with much righteous indignation. In the said story; a young man of the Muslim faith falsely raised alarm against his Christian friend and neighbor who operated a POS business and, before any sane person could come to his rescue; the man was already beaten to stupor. Thank God he didn’t die.

It turned out that the root of the incident was borne out of jealousy as the fellow who falsely raised the alarm grumbled in the ears of certain persons that an infidel was making so much money in an environment where indigenes like him struggled to survive. Therefore, the best way to get rid of this offense was to set his neighbor up to be killed! Sadly, when these facts emerged, there was no arrest, no prosecution and no compensation for the young man that narrowly escaped death. Unfortunately, many have died this way in Nigeria’s journey to nationhood.

We all saw the Wuse market arson on the social media last week – despite the Ramadan – which was another sad tale of mob action incidences. In the Wuse market case; a prison officer was alleged to have fired a gun shot at an escapee who turned out to be one of the casual laborers in the market. And for that infraction; the laborers – turned miscreants – took the laws into their hands leading to the loss of hundreds of millions of naira worth of goods belonging to innocent Igbo traders in the market. You will imagine what it means to lose such investment over what had nothing to do with you?

Imagine the hardship that this one mob action would create for a trader at a time when several families could barely feed 2 times a day? Just imagine that you are that trader and perhaps had borrowed some amount from the bank in the hope of meeting up after the Easter selling? Also imagine that you had no insurance policy against fire with any insurance firm? Now this is the case with some of the affected traders in Wuse. What has the FCT commissioner of police and his boys done so far to bring the arsonists to book? Perhaps, as usual they’ve done nothing.

Why should they do anything in the first instance; aren’t the traders Igbos of Nigeria? And, in the mind of the Police maybe, the Igbo trader should’ve been used to vagaries like this by now. Even though I appear to sound like an activist for the traders; you may be shocked to find that this is really the mindset of the police! After all, were we NOT all witnesses to the callous manner in which former minister of the FCT – Mohammed Bello – had ordered for the immediate closure of the Dei-Dei market following what was clearly a coordinated mob action against the traders without recourse to investigation?       

While I prepared to write this piece and to speak out against mob action; I read yet another disturbing story of mob action against an innocent Nigerian which occurred in the Dei-Dei environs. Now, according to the online media platform – igberetvnews.com – a young man popularly known in the area as 3quater from Ebonyi state of Nigeria was allegedly killed by vigilante boys at Angwan Fulani Dei-Dei on Thursday 21^st March, 2024 over a false allegation of phone theft. A young girl said to be friends with a member of the vigilante suddenly raised an alarm for her missing phone against 3quater and that was it.

Incidentally, after they’d mobbed and killed 3quater; the said missing phone mysteriously reappeared into the hands of the owner. So, for the vigilante – who is supposedly a part of constituted authority – to carry out mob action against the citizens they ought to serve by protecting shows how dire the situation is that we find ourselves. Residents of the FCT are practically living in fear. Fear drives the habits of all those living and working in this city now. Today, the hope of mob action is reason why it is common sight to see the Okada riders damage people’s cars and even turn around to mob them freely in broad day light!

We have even seen mob actions in an estate in Lokogoma! This brings me to answering the question of what mob action is and its place in the rule of law. A mob action is the use of force or violence by 2 or more persons acting unruly and together and; without the permission of the authority of law to disturb public peace often resulting to the death of one or more people in the process. Mob actions are perpetuated by unruly people whose reasons for behaving unruly may or may not be arguable before constituted law. And as far as the rule of law is concerned, the place of mob action in the law is barbaric, illegal, unlawful, and a criminal offence.

And, this explains why the perpetrators quickly disappears from the scene as soon as they finished the act of killing, arson, destroying of property and carting away of some property or someone. It does appear therefore that those bent on destroying the peace in the FCT – haven failed to achieve that through organized criminal ventures like kidnapping, terrorist attacks and syndicated robberies and one-chance menace – have found a safe vehicle through mob actions to pursue their wicked agenda. And this is why it needs to be included on the extermination list of security threats too and, to be decisively dealt with.

Since mob actions are unlawful, what should constituted authority do? One thing that I will suggest is to have all Okada and Keke riders, all wheel barrow and truck pushers; all agberoes as well as all scavenger and potential dwelling enclaves of scavenger; numbered. A way to organize a numbering for this category of Nigerians must be done urgently and through the creation and recognition of trade unions for them. All their higher-ups must be known to constituted authorities like the police and before the event of any misdemeanor.

Also, campaigns against mob actions must be disseminated through spaces like the radio, T V, worship centers and the social media. Finally, the Police must have well-policed mobile courts all around the areas where Okada and Keke riders still operated as well as areas with large market centers to arrest occurrences before they escalated. That way, Mob actions will become a thing of the past. And the sooner our government clamps on this satanic behavior the better for the peace and overall security of the FCT and by extension, the entire country Nigeria.

Amb. Ifeanyichukwu George; Executive Director, Self-Awareness for Suicide Prevention Initiative, Africa writes from Abuja. 08062577718