Nigeria mob action: Killing of travellers sparks outrage

31 March 2025

The authorities have vowed to punish the killers of at least 16 people travelling home to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with their families. Analysts say the cycle of mob action must be broken.

Nigeria mob action: Killing of travellers sparks outrage

The killing of at least 16 travelling hunters by a mob in the southern Nigerian state of Edo has sparked outrage and once again raises serious questions about ‘‘jungle justice’’ and whether enough is being done to tackle it in the West African country.

The victims were travelling back home on Thursday from the southern city of Port-Harcourt to the northern city of Kano to celebrate the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr with their families when a group of local vigilantes intercepted their vehicle and dragged them down in the town of Uromi in Edo state.

A mob then collected the men, doused them with petrol and burnt them to death on suspicion of being kidnappers – a claim the victims had frantically denied. At least 10 of the travellers escaped, some with various degrees of wounds, according to local media.

Some of the survivors told local media that they were returning home from a traditional hunting expedition with their tools, including dogs and den guns, when the incident happened. They were falsely accused of being a kidnapping gang and that their attempts to explain themselves to the local vigilantes were abortive.

Kidnappings for ransom by armed groups are rampant across Nigeria, but analysts say the latest incident of mistaken identity has added another sad dimension to the problem.

President Tinubu vows action

The way and manner the victims were ''killed unjustly'' shows the ''level and gravity of inhumanity'' of the perpetrators, Abdullahi Yalwa, a criminologist with the Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic in the northern city of Bauchi, tells TRT Afrika.

Community leaders, politicians and activists as well all ordinary citizens across Nigeria roundly condemned the killings, with many calling for calm given the communal and regional tensions the mob action sparked.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has since ordered an investigation, vowing ‘’criminals would not be allowed to shed the blood of innocent Nigerians in vain.’’

Nigeria's kidnapping crisis: What's fuelling it? - TRT Afrika

Kidnap-for-ransom has spiralled into "a crisis out of control" in Nigeria, with abductions reported regularly despite the government intensifying security operations in hotspot areas.