DailyPost Editorial: Murder of UNIPORT students: Questions Aluu Community must answer

“How much is life worth in Nigeria?” was the question the publisher of DailyPost asked, when some pictures were sent to our news desk from the scene of the gruesome murder of three students of the University of Port Harcourt, namely Ugonna, Tekana and Chidiaka.
No. They were not Boko Haram militants and they were not suicide bombers either. If you care to know, they were also not armed, and they didn’t kill or harm anybody. Aside the sketchy information we got that they stole a laptop and a phone, the only thing we could see as presented pictorially, was a group of jungle justice executors, heinously and reprehensibly smashing the heads of some promising young boys, placing tyres round their necks and going ahead to set them ablaze.
There is no doubt that Ugonna, Tekana and Chidiaka will curse the day they were born, considering their exit which DailyPost considers most painful. It was a painful death.
DailyPost like other media organizations, abhors in totality pilfering or any kind of societal crime. We have been in the vanguard of the campaign against crimes in Nigeria, especially as found amongst our young men and women. We are also not oblivious of the fact that “stealing is stealing”, no matter what was stolen, and whoever that is found guilty of such crime must be brought to book by the law.

However, the law says, “every criminal remains a suspect and innocent until proven guilty of the said crime. This is what the law says. It’s the law that guides us, hence we must all abide by it.

It is against this backdrop that DailyPost wishes to state that the human community is not a jungle; hence all the laws of that guide the society must be applied as against the animalistic justice of the jungle.
It is with this submission, that we advocate that those behind the gruesome murder of the 3 students of the University of Port Harcourt at Aluu community in Rivers State, deserve to face the wrath of the law.
It’s is totally unacceptable and completely out of the ordinary, for some people to have taken the laws into their hands in such a barbaric way. The question bothering us is, why will our country degenerate into such barbarity, brute and sadism? Why has it now become a norm in our country that when a crime is committed, the individuals become the police and the jurists themselves? Why have the streets and the market square become our law courts?
What we saw in the case of the three murdered students of the University of Port Harcourt, was a setup where some group of people organized themselves into Court officials, lawyers, judges and the police. They were clearly engaged in the most terrifying and horrible kind of investigation and apprehension which led to a hasty trial and the eventual execution of the poor students, and we ask again, how much is life worth in Nigeria?

You would like to take a second look at the picture, and the faces of those who gathered round the supposed criminals. To them, it was only a horror street theatre staged to get them entertained. No one seen in that picture was uncomfortable with the injustice of that moment. They were cool with their actions. We are sure that the footage, if there is any will explain better how the people might have celebrated their victory at the end. We ask again, how much is life worth in Nigeria?

We want to ask: Are punishments not meant to be reformative? We had thought that the essence of punishment was to ensure that there is a change in character or attitude, or a general way of life. If every punishment is done in the cruelest manner without the consideration that human beings can change, then we had better referred to ourselves as animals.

It is irrational, absurd and a parody of justice for anybody to punish, brutalize and or unlawfully take the life of another Nigerian.
In all earnest, the Aluu people have done what they felt was the best treatment criminals deserve, and proudly, they had syndicated the pictures around the country for people to celebrate their victory with them.

On the contrary, DailyPost would wish to appeal to the Rivers State government, and the government of Nigeria to bring the perpetrators of the act to book. We strongly believe that there is more to the murder of those young men than just phones and computers theft. The community leaders and those seen in the pictures, that have already gone viral on the internet clearly have some questions to answer, as they have little or nothing to prove that those they killed were the actual criminals.
Where are the stolen laptops and the phones? Where were they caught? Were they armed? Were the police contacted? Were they handed over to the police? Even if they carried out the act, were they given the opportunity to defend themselves? Those guys might even be guilty of the case and might have been killed innocently.
Our last questions; is the Aluu Community human community or Animal community? Is the community in tune with modernity? Are they still living in a no justice era?
From where did they get the authority to kill? These questions they must answer in no distant time as we believe that justice will take its full cause against these heartless set of animals.
We call on all well-meaning Nigerians that the time has come when we should all stand against all justices emanating from the jungle. We call on the students of the University of Port Harcourt to begin to ask questions, before they are all wiped out from the said community. We call on President Goodluck Ebelle Jonathan (GCFR) to give an immediate order for the arrest of those involved in the killing of the students. We also call on the Rivers State’s governor, Rotimi Amechi to swing into action and ensure that truth behind the murder of the students is unraveled. We cannot turn our country to a wildlife reserve where the ecosystem totally disfavors the lower animals. We cannot fold our hands, and seal our mouth seeing some lawless people taking over cities, towns, and communities.
It’s high time we stood against this senseless act. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.