The dangerous incident on Wednesday 1st July 2026, at Kofar Soro area of Katsina town, in which a large crowd of children and young men besieged a court carrying arms violently demanding extrajudicial execution of someone on trial over an allegation of blasphemy is an attack on rule of law. The standard in Nigeria is rule of law, not ‘jungle justice.’
This happened about 10 days after a mob burned Ummulkhairi — a mother of 5 and a teacher at Mararabar Jos Kaduna state over baseless allegations of ‘attempting to abduct children.’
Katsina incident clearly shows increasing lawlessness and disregard for due process by mob in northern Nigeria. When people take law into their own hands, it denies an accused person — no matter the allegation — their constitutional right to a fair trial and puts innocent lives at risk.
A situation in which children and young men can take to the streets with machetes, spears, iron rods, sledgehammers, broken bottles, daggers, bows and arrows and knives, chanting the songs of death, baying for blood is a threat to due process of law. It is alarming to note the desperate and reckless way the mob consisting of mostly children besieged a court.
Children and young men should be at schools or acquiring skills, not on the streets aspiring to commit extrajudicial execution.
Katsina State Government and law enforcement agencies must investigate this incident. Those suspected of inciting or participating in mob violence must be fully held accountable under the law. True justice can only be achieved through the rule of law, not through lawlessness and violence.