NBA Ikeja branch Chairman, Mr. Monday Ubani
By Akinwale Akintunde
The Ikeja branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has called on both the Federal and Rivers State Governments not to relent in prosecuting the suspects, who allegedly murdered four students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) in Aluu community recently.
The students were allegedly lynched by an irate mob on October 5, 2012 for allegedly stealing laptops and phones.
Fielding questions from journalists Tuesday on “Nigerian’s Hobbesian State of Nature...A Portent of Coming Tragedy”, the NBA branch through its Chairman, Mr. Monday Ubani, said: “What made the Omuokiri-Aluu killings more outrageous, despite the fewer number of killings is because, the show, utterly barbaric firm of dispatch- four hours of lynching.”
Ubani, who was represented by his First Vice-Chairman, Mr. Adesina Ogunlana, said: “The killers were not faceless, or few, but a community of lynch mob. The lynching was partly recorded on video and broadcast to the whole world via internet.”
Ubani maintained that the culture of lynching seems to be entrenched in Nigeria, adding that it is not only done by irate mobs, but also by uninformed killers.
Ubani also urged governments to compensate the families of the victims of the Aluu killings.
While condemning the October 1, 2012 attack of a student’s hostel in Mubi, Adamawa State, which claimed the life of about 24 students in cold blood, Ubani said Nigerians know that the country was far from being healthy and as such was not in a good state to live in.
The NBA chairman also noted that the country had always been ruled by those he describes as Philistines and wicked Klepto-maniacs, who according to him, loot and convert to their use and waste the wealth and resources of the country.
“The result of the mismanagement of the Nigerian state by her so called leaders in all her tiers of government is for everyone to see mass poverty, illiteracy, failure of the public sector and to us, the greatest evil of all is the mass bastardly of the moral values of the Nigerian people. Life has become so cheap and valueless for us collectively.
“We need a collective re-orientation especially from our homes and religious institutions to the effect that life, human rights are too important to be taken, abused or destroyed so lightly. Nigerians to achieve this cannot depend on the leadership cadre of this country. We must find our salvation ourselves,” he added.