His final breath
MESSAGE: Government officials, security agents, individuals in Nigeria, Africa and globally, check yourselves to know how you have contributed to jungle justice in the past, present and still hope to do same in the future, then, change. No one is vested with the right to take life of any human creature unjustly, extra-judicially or through judiciary manipulations. Every lie or manipulation backed with any conspiracy of theory has an expiry date. Fear the unexpiring trouble of your conscience and save a life today! – From: DEFENDER MEDIA LIMITED Nigeria
The sky was gray that morning.
They dragged Ikenna to the front of the street. His feet scraped against the dirt. His face was streaked with dust, blood, and tears. Around him, the voices blurred into a storm of rage.
“Thief.”
“Liar.”
“Shame to his family.”
“What did he steal?”, people asked
“He entered my shop and the 20 thousand naira i wanted to go to market with got missing”; answered the woman that owns the shop.
Ikenna’s lips trembled. “I didn’t do it,” he whispered. “Please… I didn’t…”
No one heard him. Or maybe they chose not to (either way who’d believe a thief)
The first blow came from behind. A stick cracked across his shoulder. He staggered, eyes wide with terror. Another hit followed. Then another. Stones flew from unseen hands. Blood splattered on the ground. The taste of iron filled his mouth.
“Mama…” he whimpered, barely audible.
But his mother wasn’t there.
Only the crowd. Faces twisted with fury. Eyes glazed with bloodlust. Voices feeding each other’s hate.
Every strike made his world smaller. The pain blurred. The sounds faded. The sky turned darker.
Then came from nowhere tyre and gasoline. The smell made the mob scamper a little.
The last strike was the match light.
Ikenna was up in flames. His small hand reached out weakly to no one. His breath shallow. His heart slowing. He made a cry for help but none came. Even as he wanted to run, a 2by2 stick sat him back down to the burning tyre.
Minutes later, someone ran into the square, panting.
“It wasn’t him,” the man gasped. “It was the woman’s daughter that took the money when she saw it on the counter with no one around.”
The words fell like heavy stones into the silenced mob.
They stood frozen, staring at the body they had destroyed. Mothers clutched their children. Men looked at their hands. No one spoke.
Above them, the gray sky wept.
They just killed an innocent child.
False accusations destroyed this young man’s life.
This is the society we live in.
His final breath is presumably a fiction but necessary for the anti-jungle justice campaign in Nigeria, posted as “copied” by Zaharadeen Ali Lawal, a digital creator in Nigeria, in his Facebook timeline.
MESSAGE: Government officials, security agents, individuals in Nigeria, Africa and globally, check yourselves to know how you have contributed to jungle justice in the past, present and still hope to do same in the future, then, change. No one is vested with the right to take life of any human creature unjustly, extra-judicially or through judiciary manipulations. Every lie or manipulation backed with any conspiracy of theory has an expiry date. Fear the unexpiring trouble of your conscience and save a life today! – From: DEFENDER MEDIA LIMITED Nigeria
