The Kano extrajudicial killing

The gruesome killing of Mrs Bridget Agbaheme by suspected Islamic extremists on Thursday 2nd June 2016 in the famous Kofar Wambai market, Kano State, over allegations that she blasphemed Holy Prophet Muhammad was most pathetic. The victim of Igbo extraction, Mbaitolu Local Council in Imo State precisely, was reportedly in the company of her husband when she was brutally murdered in cold blood following an argument bordering on religion between her and some other traders.

The incident is synonymous with that of 1995 decapitation of one Mr. Gideon Akaluka still in Kano State, also by Muslim fanatics. Extrajudicial killing or treatment otherwise known as ‘Jungle justice’ requires only a severe and drastic approach by the appropriate authorities toward its eradication. Extrajudicial treatment remains barbaric and illegal; hence, totally unacceptable. Its continued occurrence is an assault to the country’s criminal laws that are reckoned to be mightier than any person or group irrespective of the circumstance. The perpetrators of the Kano incident should be duly and quickly brought to book.

A most alarming aspect of extrajudicial killing is the one carried out by ‘angry mob’ sometimes upon mere accusation of theft or pick-pocketing. It is alarming because an innocent citizen can be easily mistaken for the actual culprit. Even then, constitutionally, an accused person or suspect shall remain innocent till otherwise proven by any court of competent jurisdiction.

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) in collaboration with the various civil society organisations needs to thoroughly sensitise the general public on the enormous benefit of upholding the law as well as the evitable dangers inherent in taking the law into their hands. They ought to be meant to comprehend that no individual or group, under any circumstance, is above the law.
Nwaozor is a Public Affairs analyst and Civil Rights activist.