Post
Topic
Board Politics and society (Naija)
Re: Has self defense become a crime?
by
Dulen007
on 22/07/2025, 00:08:12 UTC
When I saw clips of the massive killings in Benue State by the Fulani herdsmen, I quickly had a flashback on a case involving a farmer called Jackson Sunday and a herdsman in Anambra State in 2015. Jackson Sunday in a bid to defend himself against a herdsman killed the herdsman in order to escape from the herdsman attack but recently on March 7th, 2025 he was sentence to death by hanging on the ground that he would have fled instead of trying to defend himself. This is a wrong judgement and a redicule to our judicial system. This judgement have raised contention in the legal and none legal environment.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/2025/06/03/justice-denied-supreme-courts-judgement-in-sunday-jacksons-self-defence-case-part-3/

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/784603-sunday-jackson-a-victim-of-a-miscarriage-of-justice-by-chidi-anselm-odinkalu.html

Now, I begin to question our laws and ask certain questions:

- Should we continue to run when our lives are threatened and properties been vandalized?

- Is self-defense now a crime in Nigeria?

- Is a victim now an offender?

- Does herdsmen have the right to kill?

- What would have been the fate of Benue State if the reverse was the case?

I need opinions on the questions raised.
OP this is a contemporary question and i think we should all add a voice to it, Thanks for bring this up, many people never read about it until today. I followed up this news and also made my contribution on various media. This reduced Nigerian judiciary system to zero. Its an eye opener that there is no justice in the Nigerian legal system. The international community condemned the judgment, but since it was Supreme court judgment its very hard to reverse.

It shall not be well with the judge that gave that judgement, it further show that in this country cow and herdsmen are serious citizens and that is why the government are playing politics with herdsmen attack on farmer's crops and killing the farmers, at the end no single herdsmen has be arrested. Government has hands in it, and they are being sponsored by politicians to achieve their political interest. The case of Jackson Sunday was the worst and obvious evidence that the Nigerian government does not care about our life and properties. Wherever you are avoid trouble and if you perceive one run far.

You're obviously judging this case with your emotions. This is what the law says, "The right of self-defense is a fundamental right, but it is not a license to take the law into one's own hands."
I'm not trying to be in support of the killings carried out by the Fulani Herdsmen across the country but the fact is that, the man in question has gone against the law by killing the Herdsmen. He had a better option of running away because, running away from a fight is all a means of self defense instead, he personally took the laws into his hands and killed the Fulani Herdsmen. The law forbids that!