By THE barbaric killing of one Mrs Afornughe in Agbarho is not just another sad incident – it is a blot on the conscience of an entire community. She was accused of attempting to kidnap a child, dragged through the streets, beaten mercilessly, and burnt alive before a jubilant mob. And this happened in front of the very town hall where leaders had once endorsed a reckless communal “agreement” to punish suspected abductors outside the law.
This is not justice. This is savagery.
READ ALSO: https://stonixnews.com/mob-foils-child-abduction-as-woman-caught-with-boy-stuffed-in-sack-in-delta/
What makes this tragedy even more heartbreaking is that many in Agbarho knew the victim. She was not a stranger. She was a wife, a mother of four, a watermelon seller, and a woman who preached the gospel in her neighbourhood. Some admitted she struggled with mental health challenges. Yet, no one was brave enough to step forward and say, “Stop, this is wrong.” Silence became consent, and complicity became murder.
The question is, how can a community clamour for development when it embraces lawlessness and barbarism? How can Agbarho progress when its answer to fear is fire, and its response to suspicion is death? A society that kills first and asks questions later is a society condemned to perpetual violence and stagnation.
Some unconventional security agents were reportedly present when this heinous atrocity unfolded. What were they doing? Watching? Why was no swift intervention made? How could a woman be paraded from one point to another, over a considerable distance, before being set ablaze without one decisive move to rescue her? This exposes not just a community’s failure, but also a grave institutional collapse.
Let us be clear: child abduction is a heinous crime, and communities have a right to protect their children. But mob justice is not protection – it is destruction. The rule of law exists for a reason. Once we allow emotions to dictate justice, the innocent will always pay with their lives.
Agbarho must confront this shame. Leaders must repent for encouraging jungle justice. Security agencies, especially the Delta State Police Command, must act on the video evidence already circulating to arrest and prosecute every participant in this murder – those who beat her, those who poured fuel, those who struck the match, and those who cheered and fearlessly recorded the scene with their phones. Anything less will embolden others to continue down this bloody path.
To the people of Agbarho: the blood of this woman will haunt the land until justice is done. To the leaders: history will not absolve silence. To the rest of us: let this tragedy awaken us to the urgency of building a society governed by law, not mobs.
At Stonix News, we say without fear or favour: jungle justice is not justice. It is cowardice dressed up as courage. It is lawlessness masquerading as righteousness. And it is one of the many reasons Agbarho, and communities like it, continue to suffer under the weight of underdevelopment, fear, and shame.
Until the blood of this innocent woman is accounted for through justice, Agbarho will know no peace. Jungle justice is not only a crime; it is a collective shame.
What's your reaction?
