Criminal justice in Naija

So my next post on this blog was supposed to be about my trip to Sao tome (that's still going to come up eventually) but more recent happenings have inspired me to put up this post.

So here I am trying to get a quick snack when a security man of the establishment comes in and starts asking me questions about my vehicle (I said vehicle, yes). My initial thought was, I hope he's not going to ask me to come move my car when instead he asked me to follow him outside as there was an incident. As is expected my mind jumped to several different scenarios; 'some idjit ran into my car' 'I scratched someone else's ride' 'almost got carjacked and the culprit was nabbed' etc.

I got outside to find a crowd gathered around this chubby young man. It was on closer inspection I noticed the 'chubbiness' was a result of him being kpokporised by the mob. Apparently he had stolen into my car and grabbed my bag (yes, I know it was careless of me but hasn't anyone ever had a tough day?), and had been spotted by a paper vendor who alerted a cop detailed to a nearby bank.

After a few moves by Abuja's finest (:D) the game was up and the poor dude witnessed firsthand a taste  of the first phase of our beloved criminal justice system. He seemed to gain weight in a matter of minutes. He suffered such a multitude of hits (slaps, jabs and kicks to the groin) that in his latter deposition at the station he couldn't recall where he lived. It took an act of mercy (Me asking the cop to please put him in my car) to save his life. Some members of the mob had mutated into unrecognizable creatures; a banana vendor transformed into some caricature brandishing her tray like Captain America.

Now at this point you may wonder what inspired me to write this piece. What was so shocking was that at the station some of the officers threatened the guy with the option of him being left at the mercy of the mob. This is as a result of such criminals, too numerous to count, being left to go free by the courts once they learn they are first time offenders or being served a minimal sentence or asked to pay pittance as bail. In their opinion, if he had died it would have been one less vermin to worry about as most go straight back to this life of petty crime. This will probably inspire someone or myself to write on this issue again but I don't know.

As of today this guys fate lies in my hands. Do I witness against him? Has the 'kpokporising' he's gone through so far knocked enough sense into him? Do I drop charges? As these questions burn through my mind, I ask;

'What would you do?'