Amnesty international condemns mob violence; says 555 people killed across Nigeria in 11 years

Amnesty International has suggested that around 555 people have died across Nigeria’s six geo-political zones in eleven years due to mob violence.

Programmes Manager of Amnesty international, Barbara Magaji, released the figures while answering questions from journalists on Friday in Calabar.

Magaji who gave the figures shortly after the campaign walk against mob violence by members of Amnesty international in Calabar, stated that the victims of mob violence are either framed up or unjustly attacked because someone raised a false alarm against them in public places like markets.

She said that every year, out of the 11 years used for a study on mob violence, averagely 55 people die, as a result of mob violence.

“We spent two years documenting situations that happened across the country on mob violence for a period of 11 years, from 2012 to 2024,”she said.

From the study we carried out, the mob violence as we saw it, is that people are killed because of allegations of witch craft, or himself or someone has said that some has stolen something in a public place.

“We discovered that victims are sometimes wrongly stoned or burnt to death.

“All we are asking is that members of the public should not take the laws into their hands. Once issues like this crops up, first report this to the police or other relevant agencies, the Programme manager advised.

She urged members of the public to report issues of theft and issues that could lead to mob violence to the police who are the justice actors rather than resorting to mob the suspect.

When asked to give explanation on how the organization managed to arrived at the figures, Mogaji said, “the test was done in Nigeria across the six geo-political zones. We focus on every geo-political zone; all occurrences we saw across the states we were able to document.

The theme Programme manager stated that what was prevalent in Cross River State concerning mob violence is allegations of witchcraft even when it cannot be proved, stressing that people are just killed for no just reason.

“However, if the person has died you can can’t bring the person back to life. The right to life is violated, freedom to life is violated.

Mogaji charged the public to report to the police for investigation, with the lawyers doing the needful for the judiciary to ensure that they determine the case for people to trust the system.

The public are also saying of what will happen. There is mistrust. Their question is that what will happen if they take suspects to the police?

The call is for the justice actors, (the police) first to investigate, the lawyers to do the needful and ensure that the cases are listen to, the judiciary should ensure that the cases are determine, so that people can trust the system.

By: Archibong Emmanuel

(Snr. Reporter)