Sylvester Oromomi: The murder of the innocent and the social media platform

By Hajia Hadiza Mohammed

On a final note, I would encourage everyone with smart phones to try capture every crime scene, unusual or abnormal occurrences and share them on social media. This will in the course of time force people to be cautious about what they do and will ultimately reduce social vices in our society.

I am a great fan and user of the social media. Despite, the shortcomings and skepticisms associated with it, social media revolution has greatly amplified and accelerated the way we communicate and network in this present era. It has proved more than the main stream media to be one of the most potent tool of information dissemination and an important appanage to modern information technology. My love for the social media is not just because it is medium to connect friends, colleagues, associates and old acquaintances but because it is a veritable tool for information dissemination and knowledge gathering. Information and knowledge travel faster and wider in the social media platforms. Information can be spread, stored or retrieved at the click of button without much rigorous search. It has global reach; it is a borderless communication platform. And so is its effectiveness.

Thus, when the grisly story of the murder of a young lad, Sylvester Oromoni (Jr) by his school mates at Dowen College Lekki on the 30th of November, 2021, went viral on social media platforms everybody was jolted and outraged – the government, federal and state became interested, the security agencies were placed on alert, the mainstream media reacted by doing features about the ugly incident. The authority of the school, Dowen College were the deceased attended were forced to issue a public statement, the parents of some of the alleged culprits also made public statements in defense of their wards and the larger society, the students, parents, activists have reacted in various ways in solidarity with the family of the deceased, demanding justice. This is the power of the social media. This is one obvious reason why bad government officials are always apprehensive of the social media platforms and are always critical of its use.

Obviously, Sylvester Oromoni case may not be the first of its kind in Nigeria. Stories of this kind are rife within the locality but they are usually suppressed for lack of public awareness. The Dowen-gate incident is different because it went viral on social media. Suppressing something that has gone viral on social media is like enkindling fire and covering it with a combustible material. And as it stands now, every security officer investigating the case and every judicial officer treating the case would be extremely careful to avoid scandal knowing that the matter is under public scrutiny.

Indeed credit must be given to Sylvester Oromoni’s sister who was courageous enough to upload the video footage of the young lad words at his dying moment without which this heinous murder of the innocent would have been covered. The footage of the innocent twelve-year old boy writhing in excruciating pains inflicted on him by his cruel assailants evoked sympathy and public outcry for justice prompting official intervention – closure of the school and authorization of full scale investigation into the matter.

Other things I enjoy as a social media aficionado are quotes, jokes, wisecracks etcetera. One quote I saw on a friend’s Facebook wall which aptly captures the Dowen-gate saga says that: if you are in the habit of defending every action of your kids, you will one day hire a lawyer to defend them in a court of law. And when the news of the brutal murder at Dowen College filtered in, this quotation flashed through my mind like a raging fire and rankled on when I read the attempts by the parents of the accused kids making desperate efforts to defend the involvement their children in the act.

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Among my husband’s people, the Igbo people, is the saying that: a child whose father sent out to steal uses his heels to break down the door; meaning that a child who always has the backing of his father even in wrong doing will always act with impunity and impetuosity. Without doubt, the presumptuousness with which the killers of Sylvester Oromoni operated is suggestive of the fact that they had backings of their parents or that of other powers.

Also, the boldness with which the culprits carried out the heinous crimes tells much about the nature of the home they come from and the laxity in our educational system. The culprits knew their parents would defend them when the chips are down and that the school authority would cover them up to ensure continued patronage but unfortunately for them they did not envisage the social media factor. If they did, they would not have been so rash and cruel in attacking a poor hapless fellow student the way they did. No doubt, the Dowen-gate murder and the attempt to cover it is a case of failure of our educational system that thrives on false values, where parents are more interested in certificates and not proper education of their wards. It is a reflection of the rot in social values. It also exemplifies a case of poor parenting. Everybody in the nation Nigeria needs a social re-orientation to get our bearing right and without it, the country would have no future.

However, the above is a little digression from the subject of this essay which essentially is about the role of social media and technology in curtailing crime. Granted, the social media forums have been exploited by some career crooks to defraud their victims but effective of social media could be very useful in reducing crime in the society. Evidently, social misdemeanor, violent crimes, impunity, brutality, extortion, official rascality would be curtailed when people know that their conducts could be made bare for the world to see virtually.

The murder of Master Sylvester Oromoni by his school mates at Dowen College Lekki has shown this to be true. Other schools which are hitherto in the habit of condoning indiscipline and bullying for fear of offending some rich highly placed individuals would take precaution henceforward.

On a final note, I would encourage everyone with smart phones to try capture every crime scene, unusual or abnormal occurrences and share them on social media. This will in the course of time force people to be cautious about what they do and will ultimately reduce social vices in our society.

Hajia Hadiza Mohammed can be reached at hajiahadizamohammed@gmail.com