Say NO To Mob Action

A Victim of Mob Lynching

La Salem Park, Accra Ghana.  This is how it shamefully went down some years back;

Young Master Paul woke up one morning full of life. As usual he took his bath and prepared for school. When he was done, he wore his school shorts and a white singlet.

Master Paul was very close to his mother who was a trader and as such he would walk her to the lorry station - a routine that earned him some extra coins for school-.

"Nyɛ Awo! when you are ready, please call me so I walk you to the lorry station. We have to continue the conversation from where we left off yesterday," Master Paul told his mum as he rushed to his room to put the Social Studies Textbook in his school bag.

In no time Master Paul's mother was done and ready to leave for work. She called for him "Paul its 5:45am. Hurry up and let's go else the queue will start bending left and right."

Master Paul and his mother setoff from the house and as usual they had their chat. "Nyɛ Awo, something small for the boy? I want to buy plantain chips for snack at school today," he whispered to his mum as they approached the lorry station.

"This my son and his tricks. When you start talking like this, I know you want extra 1ghc from me to topup your 3ghc daily feeding money. If you think you are grown, we are ancient. Anyways you brighten up my morning everyday by walking me to the station and I appreciate you for that," his mother said as she reached out for the 1ghc coin from her bag and gave it to him. He put the coin in his left hand.

When they got to the lorry station, Paul help his mother get on the trotro, stood next to her window and continue their chat till the trotro was full and ready to move. He waved at her as the car moved towards the main road.

Halfway through his journey back home to pick up his school bag, shirt and leave for school, he heard a loud shout "hoo julɔ oo". Before he could say 'jack', a lot of people had surrounded him and were beating him.

" Foolish boy. Small boy like you, you have started stealing," a man from the crowd said as he struck Master Paul with a Crowbar. Another landed a heavy punch,a slap and a kick to his ribs as he fell to the ground.

"What has he done? Leave the boy alone he is not a thief. I know him. I just saw him with his mother at the lorry station," a man from the lorry station yelled.

He fought his way through the mob as they continued to lynch Master Paul and managed to stop them. Master Paul was not moving, he had no pulse as well.

"What have you lot done? You have killed someone's innocent son.he didn't steal anything. I saw his mother give him 1ghc coin," pointing to Paul's left hand which he had made into a fist. He managed to open the fist and yelled with tears in his eyes "He still had the 1ghc coin in his hand as you people were beating him.what did he steal? What did he ever do to you? Are you happy now? You have killed him."

He carried the lifeless body of Master Paul, stopped a taxi, put the body in it drove off.

PS: This happened to Master Paul at La Salem Park in Greater Accra- if not in the same order that I described it- some years back. A mother lost a son and a nation lost a promising adult because of mob action. Say No to Mob lynching. Instant justice is not a good thing.

By Nii Ogbamey Tetteh