Three Saved From Nigerian Jungle Justice In Lagos
A righteous Nigerian (unfortunately, he did not give his name) saves three people in Lagos, pronounced "kidnappers" by a vengeful crowd, from a sad fate notoriously known as "Nigerian jungle justice".
Below is his story and some photos taken by eyewitnesses (first published in Linda Ikeji's Blog).
On Friday morning, July 18, he was returning home. Around Idimu-Egbeda, Lagos, he saw a pack of Okada men dragging two men and a woman out of a car in front of him. He sat in his car watching, thinking those three must had injured an Okada man, so his fellow bikemen were seeking for justice.
However, this was not the case, as the group started beating the victims and inflicting damage on their car.
Upon seeing this, the anonymous savior entered the crowd and tried to gather what had really happened. The crowd responded with shouting the three are kidnappers.
The crowd grew by the minute. "Close to 800 people," he says, "men, women, boys, girls, even school children, all struggling to get a glimpse ... everyone ... gossiping and discussing, while some were seriously doing the beating". He started asking around for details, but it seemed that no one knew the true reason behind the violence.
Sensing imminent and terrifying eventual decision of the crowd "to burn them soon," he then drove to the nearest police station. There, he briefly described the development.
Click here to see a photo of the injured victims. Warning: graphic image
Click here to see a photo of the injured victims. Warning: graphic image
Narrating further, he commended quick response of the policemen who immediately followed him to the scene and fired a couple of warning shots into the air to disperse the aggressive crowd.
Watching at a safe distance, our protagonist says he still could hear surprised Nigerians talking about how the victims hadn't deserved being rescued by the police and should have been burnt "to serve as a lesson for others with bad intentions."
Then, he observes how there are now multiple, often contradictory, stories regarding why the three unfortunate victims were beaten by the crowd. In one, they "snatched a woman who was coming out of the bank with N200,000, drove her a mile, then threw her out of the moving vehicle." Others say, "they kidnapped three children, the mother raised the alarm and a hot pursuit ensued."
"The good thing is," the anonymous brave Nigerian says, "I let the Nigerian police do their work."
Why do you think we tend to take the law into our own hands, without even bothering to know all the circumstances of some alleged "crime"? Have you ever witnessed Nigerian "jungle justice" exercised by excited and angry mob?
Feel free to share your story with Legit.ng!
Source: Legit.ng
