In the past few days, there have been a massive trend of jungle justice, with videos of severely battered persons, alleged of stealing, flooding the media space. Some of these persons were rendered naked, most beaten beyond recognition, and some were made to dance or do some act as a form of public humiliation.
These videos gained so much traction, and people in the comment section often appraise the act, enjoying the sight. Popular comments include "If you thief this period, you will realize you have hidden talents" and "99 days for the thief, one day for the owner, this year seems to be the year of the owner". So many of these videos flooded social media so much, and people leverage on building traction for their account via them. These acts, considered harmless by most people who made the repost, who liked the video, who dropped a commending comment, all culminated in developing the broken windows effect and open the room for disindividuation.
Persons who were involved in the mob actions, recorded or posted these videos were not punished, and neither did the Nigeria Police Force apprehend the trend. Instead, they were rewarded with more views, more like, and more acceptance.
This, therefore, creates an urge and a social orientation that the act was acceptable or at least not codemnable, and everyone who catches an "alleged thief" offered the social media more content. I found this especially in the gory video of IbeeMbaya's murder where the person recording the video was doing it with so much joy repeating the trending quote of 2026 being the year for the owner.
