File photo of mob action taking place
Mob Justice can be defined as a large section of a disorganized crowd of people who resort to violence and destruction in an attempt to ensure fairness and equity for themselves without any recourse to the legal institutions entrusted with the powers to adjugate Justice.
The term Mob Justice is not and can not be found in any legal books of Ghana being the constitution of Ghana, the criminal law acts, or promulgated books of Ghana, rather I see it to be Mob violence.
Mob Justice has caused more harm to society and the state than any good side as propagated by other groups of people. Some sections of the society resort to Mop Justice because they felt the Justice system and all state justice apparatus are not to be trusted and have little or no confidence in them.
They have a conception that when miscreants are reported to any state apparatus they can use the legal technicalities to get off the hook, therefore the best way to achieve results is to deploy instance Justice. This development calls for more interrogations and props than what is currently seen or done by the various states in trusted with legal adjurations, so as to place confidence and trust as enshrine in Ghana Constitution Chapter 5 and the Criminal Acts 29.
According to a Scholar by the name of Ernest Gyamfi who conducted a survey on why people engage in Mob Justice and whether they know the impacts this action causes related to the state and the larger society and the result that came from the survey is the majority of the respondent's belief section of the society engage in mob action because they don't believe the state institutions will provide fair justice and in area of awareness of the consequences to face when to find guilty of indulging in such actions, majority of the respondents felt the law is week and can not bite hard.
The country Ghana and the society had lost great individuals through these barbaric acts and the typical example is Ghana losing a promising army officer in the people of the late Captain Maxwell Adam Maham, which occurred in May 2017 who was wrongly tagged as criminal and was lynched by mob crowd in the course of duty within small village call Dankyira Obuasi.
This action was seen as a big blow to the state, the security fraternity, and the family, nearly stirred turmoil within the state it took rapid responses from the state to calm nerves. A young man on 16 Oct 2021, in downside a Community in Nima, Accra Ghana, was allegedly brutalized and nearly killed, it took the interventions of some opinion leaders.
The young man was accused of stealing a mobile phone and upon several attempts to explain issues, he was denied by the angry crowd and was quoted as being a suspected guy within the area.
In my concluding remarks, l urge all state institutions vested with constitutional powers and Criminal law powers to begin bitting hard on individuals or groups of people indulging in Mob Justice to serve as a deterrent to others who have similar intentions.
For example, the Ghana Criminal law Act 29 has several sections like sections 47, 48, 69, and 84 that spelled out punishment that warrants a person's engagement in Mob Justice. Also, state institutions like CHRAJ and NCCE must intensive public education on CHAP 5 Constitution of Ghana article 13,15and 19 that talks about fundamental human rights and fair to trial.
I Reiterate, my writing is to turn the concept of Mob Justice upside down thus making "Mob Justice" Mob violence.