Mob Justice Alleged Criminals And its Impact on State Ghana-Society

Mob Justice can be defined as a large section of disorganise crowd of people resort to violence and destruction in attempt to ensure fairness and equity for themselves without any recourse to the legal institutions entrusted with the powers to adjugated Justice. The term Mob Justice is not and cannot be find 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 the society and the state than any good side as propagated by other group of people. Some section 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 deployed instance Justice. This development calls for more interrogations and props then what is currently seen or done by the various states in trusted with legal adjugations, so as to placed confidence and trust as enshrine in Ghana Constitution Chapter 5 and the Criminal Acts 29.

According to a Scholar by name 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 majority of the respondents belief section of the society engage in mob action because they don't belief the state institutions will provide fair justice and in area of awareness of the consequences to face when find guilty of indulging in such actions, majority of the respondents felt the law is week and cannot 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 persons of the late Captain Maxwell Adam Maham, which occurred in May 2017 who was wrongly tagged as criminal and was lynch 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 brutalised and nearly killed, it took the interventions of some opinion leaders. The young man was accused of stealing mobile fone and upon several attempt to explain issues, he was denied by the angry crowd and was quoted of being a suspected guy within the area.

In my conclusion remarks, l urges all state institutions vested with constitutional powers and Criminal law powers to begin biting hard on individuals or group of people indulges in Mob Justice to serve as deterrent to others who have similar intentions. Example the Ghana Criminal law Act 29 that has several sections like section 47, 48, 69 and 84 that spelt out punishment that warrant a persons engage 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 right and fair to trial. I Reiterate, my writing is to turn the concept of Mob Justice upside down thus making of "Mob Justice" Mob violence.

MICHAEL YIRAN

ACCRA GHANA