By Habeeb Olokooba
When lawlessness becomes norms and law becomes lawless, then we’ll not be wrong to say that craziness has been clothed; madness has been fashioned. Something is definitely wrong somewhere and something needs to be fixed.
Today, abnormalities have been portrayed to be culture while law seems nonexistent. You can hardly surf online without bumping into one prank video or the other, particularly on social media. In fact, most skit makers and comedians have graduated from the normal comedy and farce videos they are known for. They’ve chosen prank videos to be the hotcakes– even over their lives.
The likes of– ‘iamtrnityguy,’ ‘teaserprank2,’ machigold-prank, the list is not exhausted. These skit makers have been known to make their fan bases through the creation of prank videos, sometimes harmless but most a times, muffled, reckless and injurious.
Recap to the early hours of a windy Saturday’s morning, scrolling through some reels on my Facebook page, then my attention caught this particular prank video; it was nothing to write home about. ‘Iamtrinityguy’ and a skinny girl, in her late teens; or probably early twenties, the pranker, in the clip, flogged the lady and forced her to go back home and change her clothes. She’s beaten as if he had authority over her. Even, one parent wouldn’t have done that. “You think I’m joking with you, go and change these clothes,” Said Iamtrinityguy.
She was embarrassed and disgraced, what an assault! This country hasn’t been easy and most times Nigerians find a way in bringing food to the table, legally. However, my fuzzy brain fails to take it all, when I come across videos that cause pandemonium and disrupt the peaceful atmosphere of the society, just in the name of making a video that will earn them likes and comments.
Online Pranksters are going beyond the intent of creating humor and thereby committing assault against the prankee(s). This havoc in most times causes NUISANCE to the public at large; known as public nuisance in law.
What then is Nuisance?
According to Wikipedia, Nuisance is defined as that which causes offense, annoyance, trouble or injury. A nuisance can be either public [common] or private.
Simply put, Public Nuisance means an act or an omission which puts the public in any form of inconvenience, annoyance or distress in the exercise of a common right.
It was defined by English scholar Sir James Fitzjames Stephen as an act not warranted by law, or an omission to discharge a legal duty, which act or omission obstructs or causes inconvenience or damage to the public in the exercise of rights common to all Her Majesty’s subjects.
Public Nuisance is an offense under the Nigeria criminal law. By virtue of section 183 of the Penal Code as well as section 234 of the Criminal Code which defines and prescribed punishment for the perpetrator of public Nuisance. In relation to the above provisions of the Nigerian statutes, the pranksters have been committing nuisance. Making them guilty of a misdemeanor (minor offense) and upon proven guilty might be inflicted with an imprisonment which may be up to two years.
With this, it can be concluded that the acts of iamtrinityguy and others attract imprisonment. Besides, this can cause immediate death to hypertensive patients and others who are battling chronic disease or ill-status. Get your lawyer.
In the second part of this article, we shall be discussing assault!