IN a criminal and morally reprehensible manner that underscores deeply entrenched lawlessness and the diminished primacy of the rule of law in the country, yet another jungle justice culminating in the gruesome murder of an innocent young man, Joe Phillip, has happened. Citizen Joe Phillip, also known as Aboy, was killed recently by some lawless operatives of the Anioma Security Watch Network, a vigilante group, in Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State. Vigilante groups going by various names in many communities in Nigeria are usually established to bridge the patently yawning gap between the society’s demand for effective law enforcement and security from the regular police and the reality on the ground.
Unfortunately, the vigilantes, who as a rule are expected to hand over any crime suspects they apprehend to the police, have been found time and again taking the law into their own hands and generally acting outside their remit. It was in continuation of the exercise of powers they do not possess that Joe Phillip lost his life in a most pathetic fashion. The narrative is sordid and it evokes emotional torment, especially the unjustifiable fate that befell the young man because he clearly didn’t deserve it.
Phillip had reportedly put on his power generating set while a woman said to be his neighbour came to charge her Nokia phone in his room with the intention of coming back to pick it up later. Meanwhile, the woman’s son reportedly came to remove her mo.
