ByEmmanuel Onwubiko
For the last two weeksNigerians have had the misfortune of being bombarded with the shocking news ofthe gruesome killing by suspected hoodlums of Miss Cynthia Osokogu, the twentyfour year old post- graduate student of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi andthe only daughter of a retired military General-Major General Frank Osokoguwhose retirement house is in Jos, Plateau State.
The young girl was said tohave been lured by her alleged killers through the new social media from herbase in Keffi, Nasarawa state to Lagos State where she underwent gruelingsessions of physical assault and she suffered eventual death . Those whobrutally murdered the young student and upwardly mobile entrepreneur, werereported to have met her through one of the social media chat rooms onlinewhereby they deceived her into believing that they are genuine importers offoreign Fabrics and clothing and proposed a business meeting in Lagos.
Cynthia Osokogu just likeany young Nigerian that consistently meet new friends and business partnersonline, decided to pay her new online friends a visit in Lagos since that waswhere she always buys her materials for her fashion outlet in Keffi, but shenever returned alive.
The dastardly criminal actof the gruesome murder by online friends of this young Nigerian girl has sentshock waves across the country and a lot of people have also raised alarm ofthe inherent danger posed by dangerous criminals who use the new social mediato lure their unsuspecting victim(s) to be dispossessed of their belongings andin some cases sexually abused and gruesomely murdered as was the case with MissCynthia.
The story of the murder ofCynthia came to light about the same period that a national debate was ignitedby the Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the danger and/orcriminal activities that some shady characters have deployed the new socialmedia as their platforms for committing different atrocities. But David Markwho only spoke about the damaging circulation of false allegations and libelousmaterials on the internet by these “faceless” internet hoodlums, never knewthat there are even more danger lurking around the new social media.
When David Mark called for moderationand respect to ethical code of journalism in the use of new social media,little did he know that even armed robbers and murderers have found solace inthe use of the new social media to lure their would-be victims as was the casewith this young Nigerian lady-Cynthia Osokogu.
When people criticized DavidMark for his alarm on the misuse of the new social media, this writer hadbacked him and also called for respect for ethical codes.
I had written that on theethical question raised by David Mark, the Senate President on the abuse of thesocial media by most untrained minds, I think his position is sound,qualitative, objective and should therefore not be dismissed as canvassing fortighter laws on use of social or new media in Nigeria similar to what obtainsin China and places like Iran or even Saudi Arabia.
The Senate President statedthus; “The emergence of social media like face book, twitter, blackberrymessenger, YouTube have changed the face of media practice by makinginformation sharing easier, faster and quicker. But this is not without itsdemerits. Social media has become a threat to the ethics of media practice andgood governance because of its accessibility and absolute freedom. Everyfreedom carries a responsibility. Even in advanced democracies, where we allagree that good governance is practiced, there is no absolute freedom.”
He spoke further; “Itherefore believe that there must be a measure to check the negative tendenciesof the social media in our country. I say this because media practice,particularly journalism, process its news gathering and dissemination. It alsooperates a feedback mechanism and where the practitioners err there is room forrebuttal. But in the social media a faceless character can post any informationthat is absolutely false and misleading but will never retract it. At the endof the day one is bombarded with questions over what one has no business with.”
David Mark suggested asimple solution thus; “I suggest that schools of mass communication andjournalism should review their curricula to include the operations of socialmedia.”
On the killing of MissOsokogu, the Nigerian police Force has announced the arrest of two suspects inthe murder: Mr. Nwabuzo Okumo and Ezekiel Odera. The police had at a parade ofthe arrested suspects vowed to prosecute them over this despicable crime. The suspectswere said to have drugged and chained Cynthia before beating her to death at ahotel named Casmillo Hotel, Lakeview, Estate, Phase 1, Amuwo Odofin Lagos. During the parade led by the Lagos Statepolice commissioner Mr. Umar Manko, last Wednesday, the suspects reportedly confessedto have lured Cynthia Osokogu to herearly death on the new social media.
Some analysts have praisedwhat they called police decisive and effective arrest of these suspects onlyone month after this sad incident. But I am not one of those analysts to be deceivedby this familiar method of crime fighting of the police which has not helped inpinning down suspects to the various crimes and obtaining quality convictionsin the competent courts of law in compliance with section 6 of the Constitutionof Nigeria of 1999 (as amended).
Specifically, part II,Article four of the police Act provides that; “The police shall be employed forthe prevention and detection of crime, the apprehension of offenders, thepreservation of law and order, the protection of life and property and the enforcementof all laws and regulations with which they are directly charged, and shallperform such military duties within or without Nigeria as may be required by themby, or under the authority, of this or any other Act”.
Nigeria Police Force has badrecord of always rushing to parade crime suspects but always fail to ensure thatgood enough scientific/forensic body of evidence are generated, preserved and usedby the prosecutors in the competent courts of law to get convictions foralleged crime suspects.
It is not enough to parade thesuspected killers of Miss. Cynthia but the police must be made to generateunassailable body of evidence so that the real killers of this young innocentNigerian girl- Miss Cynthia Osokogu are punished severely for this evil they havedone to us all as decent Nigerians.
* Emmanuel Onwubiko,Head, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, blogs@www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
