NIGERIA Horrifying footage of Nigerian street justice. A thief was caught and brutally lynched by a mob. When he was already half-dead, they poured flammable liquid on him and burned him alive.
In Nigeria, and other parts of West Africa, the phenomenon of lynching thieves is a frequent display of vigilantism – when people take justice into their own hands. All it takes is someone shouting “thief” on the street, and an angry crowd immediately gathers, beating the alleged thief, and in some cases setting him on fire or otherwise lynching him to death.
This happens mainly because locals have a deep mistrust of the police and judicial system. They believe that if a thief is handed over to the police, he will escape punishment, often by bribing his way out. The view of poor people toward thieves also plays a role. Those living on the edge of survival see an attempted robbery as an existential threat, which fuels their desire for retribution.
When a thief is denied a fair judicial process, it violates nearly every human right. Mistaken identity often occurs, where someone falsely accused of theft is lynched to death by a mob. Such a mistake, tragically, cannot be undone.
Similar practices are common in Ghana and South Africa, but according to Amnesty International, the problem is most widespread in Nigeria. Burnings and lynchings happen frequently there, even to young people accused of petty theft.
