As if you need a reason why mob justice is not good – but we’re not too bright in this country so the case has to be made – this is it!
We can’t have mob justice because a mob by definition aren’t using their brains, and more often than not they get the wrong person and brutalise them, or worse.
A soldier in Denkyira-Obuasi in the Central Region has been lynched to death by a mob in the area on suspicion of being an armed robber.
According to reports, the soldier was jogging Monday dawn and not in uniform, but had a pistol on him.
Having stopped to ask some women for directions, they saw the pistol and assumed he was an armed robber, due to a recent spate of robberies in the area – and ran to inform an assembly man who organised a mob.
Despite all pleas of the soldier that he wasn’t a robber but a military officer, he was beaten to death anyway by the mob.
The soldier, Capt Maxwell Mahama, was on detachment to the area from Burma Camp in Accra.
Police in the area have confirmed the case and are investigating, although reports indicate some youth of the town have fled for fear of revenge from other soldiers.