Jungle Justice

I am now a murderer. But how did I become a murderer when I never had any intention to hurt someone not to talk of being the reason for an innocent man's death? How did I end up this way and what led me to kill someone on this very day? These words ring in Esther's head as she continues to stare at the burning body of chima on the street. Everything happened so fast and this is how it all went down.
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It was a Monday morning in the month of January 2024. The market is not experiencing any dull moment as many students who are studying in the nearby university have flocked the market to purchase some foodstuffs. Chima happens to be one of those students. He's a 23 year old student studying mass communication in the prestigious Nnamdi Azikiwe University popularly called Unizik. He is now in his final year and he's expected to graduate before the end of this year.
Now, lets talk about Esther. Esther is about 27 years of age. She's a devoted Christian. She's now engaged, but has refused to move in with her fiance because of her religious belief and hatred of premarital sex. She has taken out fifty thousand naira made up of five hundred naira notes held together with a rubber band from a nearby Bank. She intends to use the money to buy new materials for her tailoring business.

When she got home from the bank, she took out the money from her handbag, recounted it and then drops it on her bed. She then took out a powder from her handbag, drops the handbag on top of the small cupboard that also serves as the mirror stand before applying the makeup on her face. While she was still making up, her mother stepped in, asked her where she was preparing to go to and sat on the bed. Just as she was telling her mother about her plans for the day, her mother's phone rang, she picks up the phone and starts talking. Esther waited for some seconds but thinks she was running out of time. She picks up her handbag, and signals to her mother that she's leaving and then left.
Once outside, she stops an auto rickshaw popularly called Keke Napep in Nigeria. The driver already has two passengers at the backseat. Chima is one of the passengers. He is sitting at the right hand side of the auto rickshaw from where Esther is supposed to get into the vehicle from. Esther signals him to move further inside so that she can sit at the extreme right hand side of the vehicle but Chima refuses. Instead, he creates a little space for Esther to get in and sit in between him and the other passenger. This annoys Esther but she's left with no choice than to go in and sit in the middle of the two passengers.
While she was going in, she had severe contact with Chima and she quickly readjusts her handbag.
On getting to the market, Chima quickly jumped down from the tricycle, gave the driver one hundred naira notes and hurriedly left without collecting his twenty naira change. Esther comes down from the vehicle and starts searching for her money so that she can pay the driver but couldn't find a dime and she immediately alerted the people around that her fifty thousand naira has been stolen by the passenger that just left. Some boys who saw Chima leaving the Keke Napep in a hurry quickly chased after him and caught him. They asked him if he stole any money from Esther but he denied and said that he doesn't take whatever that doesn't belong to him. As they were interrogating him, more people gathered and this drew the attention of the market's President. He came and asked Esther to describe her money. Esther mentions that her money is exactly fifty thousand naira made up of five hundred naira notes held together with a rubber band. The president immediately searches Chima's pockets and recovers exactly the amount that matches the description of Esther's missing money. He hands over the money to Esther
Chima tries to explain to them that he is coming straight from the bank where he has gone to withdraw the money before coming to the market. But the angry mob was not ready to listen to him. The president tells the mob that he will hand him over to the police but the mob refused because they believe the police will let him go home the same day if he pays a little bribe. They began to accuse the president of supporting criminals and even alleged that Chima is one those boys he puts on the street to be robbing people of their belongings. When the heat from the mob became too much for the president, he handed Chima over to them. The mob began to beat him up and tore all his clothes. Esther tries to intervene. She begs them to stop but they threatened to kill her with Chima if she ever utters a word of pity again for a criminal. They dragged Chima on the floor as stones and sticks fly all over his body. Chima is already weak and could barely move on his own as a result of his numerous wounds and the amount of blood that has gone out from his body. Soon a car tyre was placed around his neck, another man poured some fuel on him and everyone quickly stepped away from him while still throwing stones at him.
Another man casually throws his cigarette at him and Chima is quickly engulfed in fire.
And tears quickly rolled down from Esther's eyes. Suddenly, her phone rings. It's her mother. And the next thing she hears is " Hello, Esther, it's like you forgot the money you went to withdraw from the bank. It is lying here on your bed. So how are you going to buy the materials?". Esther becomes more dumbfounded and heartbroken as she continues to stare at the burning Body of Chima with stones still flying all over him.
She wanted to tell the people that Chima is innocent so that they can at least put out the fire and allow his family to come and pick up his body for a befitting burial but doing that will certainly cost her her own life too. But if she refuses to confess that Chima is innocent, she will live the rest of her life with the guilt that she killed an innocent man considering the fact that she is a devout Christian.
So listeners and viewers, if you happen to be in Esther's shoes, what would you have done at this point. And if you happen to be Chima's parents, what will be your reaction if Esther ever confesses the truth? And if you happen to be one of the people that killed Chima on the street, will you ever participate in any mob action again irrespective of whatever evidence that is presented against the assumed criminal?
Put down your comments and suggestions on the comment section bellow. See you in the next video. Bye bye