By Apaovie Osuamkpe
All of us need to know and remember the day four young men, students of the University of Port Harcourt were mobbed and burnt to death in Aluu community, Rivers State. The day an angry crowd unleashed the wrath of god on four helpless young men. For those of us who can recall this story, it was a day of anguish and despair.
The boys were allegedly caught in the act of allegedly stealing ordinary mobile phones. Or, wait, was it a laptop? A brand new generator? A carton of Indomie noodles? Nobody remembers what. No one actually cared. A thief is a thief and deserves to die. And so, the crowd beat them up mercilessly, their bones fractured, their faces pummelled beyond recognition. All that after being paraded around town, stripped naked as if on the highway to Calvary. Then came judgment, by fire. Please, listen carefully. We’re talking about a brood of wife beaters here; fornicators; unfortunate men and women well-versed in all kinds of erratic behaviour. These were the ones passing judgment on other people’s children. For every plea that escaped the boys’ lips, there was a random buffoon whose camera phone had filmed them being barbecued to death. Yet nobody called for help. And the painful thing is that, until now, the whereabouts of the so-called ‘stolen’ items have stayed hidden underneath the grass carpet of oblivion. A lost-but-found mystery. Perhaps awaiting Scooby-Doo and his gang to show up and do something.
Wikipedia calls the incident a necklace lynching; a simple tag without ceremony. As though foul play was nowhere in question. As if the mob was merely trying to decorate the boys for a job well done – with tyres around their necks – before someone mistakenly lit a torch and set their wounds ablaze. Moments later, when the gust of wind had settled down, and the blood of the slain began to cake in the dirt, the workers of iniquity slowly dispersed to their respective tents, filled to their bellies. They would return to their ugly wives and children and narrate to them how they spent the whole day trying to impersonate God.
It would make a huge understatement for me to say my heart still bleeds for the families and friends of Aluu 4, ten years after. I still cringe at the thought of Tekena Elkanah’s sister being handicapped to stop the angry mob that killed her younger brother and his friends that fateful Black Friday. It will always disgust me that Ugonna Obuzor (Tipsy) and Lloyd Toku (Big L) were robbed of a music career which held plenty to look forward to. Listening to their rap verses on Timi Kay’s ‘Heart of the city’ still gives me goose bumps that I won’t begin to describe. And who can foretell what crazy exploits Chiadika Biringa would have managed with his Theatre Arts degree upon graduation? Nobody really knows…
For their loved ones at least, a dull glow at the end of the tunnel arrived just five years ago, in a state high court. On July 31, 2017, a final verdict was issued, by the ruling of Justice Letam Nyordee, which sentenced three persons to death for their hand in the killings, out of the eighteen previously arrested. The rest of the suspects had been let off due to legal technicalities; sent forth into the world to go and sin no more. But eventually, what looked like a sliver of punishment had been served, in spite of lengthy proceedings. ‘Justice has finally come the way of our children, the court has shown they were not robbers,’ said a relieved Mr Toku Mike, the father of Lloyd, who was a 200 level Civil Engineering student before his untimely demise. And just like that, the nationwide clamour for justice came to still waters.
Today marks exactly ten years since the tragic incident occurred. Young boys have morphed into adult men with shave bumps underneath our chins, and the girls now cleave suckling infants to their bosoms. Atiku is still running for President, yet Mikel Obi has retired from playing football. Some things are bound to change while others remain every inch the same. Where we go from here though depends on our sense of empathy for one another; countrymen and fellow humans alike. Until we start to pride ourselves in our civic responsibility, to love and to protect, the woe of jungle justice and its demon siblings will never cease to terrorize in our midst. God help us all.
P.S. Remember, ‘the Nigerian police’ is not your friend. For no reason should you be led to assume otherwise. The Aluu 4 incident remains a benchmark for the wayward nature of some members of the Nigerian Police Force. Those elements within the force who are soaked deep in corruption and who are willing to do just about anything to secure tattered Fifty Naira notes . Eyewitness accounts identified the presence of a patrol van at the crime scene that day, albeit for a brief while. According to some reports, the policemen alighted from the vehicle and pretended to investigate happenings by word-of-mouth. Whatever glimmer of hope their presence may have offered the boys dissipated into thin air when they climbed back into their metal coffin and drove away. Bonus whispers even suggest that they first scorned at the boys before taking off. And one just begins to wonder. What kind of irresponsible officers would sit back and watch four promising youths ascend to blessed memory, in the hands of savages? That young men were allowed to bleed out their destinies, while quasi-custodians of law and order allegedly gave sanction to their murder, is justification for all Nigerians to fast and pray. Nobody will ever be safe in this country, as far as some of our policemen and women are concerned. So this night, before you go to sleep, stand in front of your bedside mirror, circle your right hand above your head three times, and declare aloud: ‘the Nigerian police’ will never be my friend!
God help us. Again.
