Let’s stop 'mob justice' in Ghana

Mob action is instant justice. It is the practice of instantly dispensing 'justice', such as beating up, or in the worst case, killing someone suspected to be a criminal or a wrongdoer, without giving him/her a fair trial under a properly constituted court of law.

Mob action has existed in many human societies for a very long time and Ghana is no exception. The practice of mob action is not new to us. We have done it for many years with most of them going unnoticed.

However, the recent lynching of Major Maxwell Adam Mahama, then an army Captain by some residents of Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region on May 29, 2017, dominated many news headlines for a number of days with many Ghanaians calling on the government to end the practice.

Instant justice, mob justice or whatever name you may choose to call it can best be described as a barbaric mobilisation of callous individuals to mete punishment to people they consider are in the wrong.

Considering this era of our human civilization, I think we have gone past the generation where mob action is resorted to as a means of dispensing justice to people we suspect to be criminals or offenders.

Ghana as a country is known worldwide for its hospitality and we cannot afford to lose this highly revered accolade in place of hostility. We must guard this virtue of ours with all our strength. It certainly is a great compliment we must strive to keep as a nation.

Through mob action, many innocent individuals have been sent to their early graves. This bizarre practice is unfit for any human society. And yes, though we have criminalized this practice in our resolve to  weed it out, we obviously have more to do to stamp it out outright.

I strongly believe that we can end mob action when we see the law courts as the place to seek justice and not the use of clubs, stones, sticks and other offensive weapons.

Let us build a nation that respects human life and dignity. Absolutely no excuse is tenable that a group of young people would gather for one reason; to kill a person who has not been proven guilty in the law courts or sanctioned to be killed by a mob. When was the last time Ghana, even as a nation, put someone to death because he/she was a murderer? I'm counseled that keeping convicted offenders out of public spaces is a better way of dealing with the situation, aware that it is not all who are pronounced guilty of crimes even by judicial trials are guilty of the crimes slapped on them. Some are jailed simply because the weight of circumstantial evidence against them turn out too heavy to defend.

We should never lose any persons henceforth as a nation to mob action - whether rich or poor, educated or uneducated, civilian or military. Let us all become agents of change in the fight against mob action. This is because we can all become victims of mob action either directly or indirectly.

The writer, Emmanuella Amponsah Oduro, is a JHS-One student of CASBE International School in Sunyani.