By Richmond B. Tholley
Mob justice, a form of extrajudicial punishment or retribution in which a person suspected to be a criminal is beaten by a group of people or a crowd with stones, machetes, or anything they can lay hands on, is reportedly on the increase and alarming in the northern town of Mile 91, according to a revelation from residents in an interview conducted on diverse dates.
“It hardly passes a day without seeing or hearing the news that someone suspected to be a criminal has been beaten or tortured by residents here,” Sullay Yateh, a commercial biker, said.
Yateh said the act is on the increase, and everyone could be a victim. On many occasions, Yateh added that everyone would just take sticks and other objects to beat anyone, as long as the person had been accused of a crime.
Instead of being taken to the nearest police station, people suspected to be thieves or caught stealing in Mile 91 are either beaten or killed in the process, and incidents of that nature have been increasingly alarming, Abdulai Sesay, a local trader at the Mile 91 town main junction, said.
Most times, Sesay said the victims would be beaten and left in a pool of blood before the police could notice.
Peace Village and Masorie are the two communities in the town predominantly known for the unlawful act, and several youths suspected to be thieves or caught stealing in the aforementioned areas have been victims.
“My son, a carpenter from another town, came to see us [the family] in Mile 91, and he was killed around Peace Village after he was mistaken by some youths to be a thief,” Pa Amidu Kamara, an old man around Cemetery Road whose son was allegedly mobbed to death, narrated his ordeal.
Two years ago, the old man said his son went to see his stepmother, and he was killed in broad daylight after he was mistaken to be a thief. Though his son explained he wasn’t a criminal, his attackers, the old man said, never listen.
Mile 91, a town in Yoni Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, is among the communities in the West African nation that are hardly hit by Kush, a deadly, harmful drug that is currently ravaging and leaving the country’s youthful population useless after taking it.
A recent report says most of the victims of the said mob justice have been youths engaging in taking the Kush drug.
Having taken the drug, the youths would engage in crimes, and the most common one has been stealing. The rampant cases of theft in the town since the emergence of the kush drug have left everyone at Mile 91 angry.
To seek redress, a section of the residents think mob justice could be an option. Recently, several Mile 91 youths have been found dead on the street, with some having wounds and blood.
“My brother, the recent deaths in Mile 91 must be investigated because they’re not natural, and the authorities must do something. Mob justice is on the increase,” an anonymous source said.
“My cousin was found dead in the street and was buried a few days ago, but the way he mysteriously died is suspicious. We saw blood all over his body, and there were wounds all over his body,” a source who wished to be anonymous said.
Most of our sources said the increase in the act of mob justice in the town is because theft has become the order of the day and the authorities are doing nothing to ensure justice is served.
“When you report to the police, nothing is done, and the criminals will come back to the community and steal again. That’s why you see people beating up anyone caught stealing,” a source said.
Mile 91 Police Division Local Unit Commander, Chief Superintendent of Police, Michael J.K. Lagga, did not refute the allegation but said the police were not aware of the alleged incidents.
Those alleged incidents, CSP Lagga noted, happened in the absence of the police. As part of his local policing strategies, the local unit commander says he would engage the local radio station in the community to discourage the act and urge residents to report matters of mob justice for action to be taken.
