WHY NIGERIAN KIDS STUDYING IN THE UK ARE KILLED

Mr Richard Taylor, father of 11 year old Damilola who was killed in Peckham, South London in 2000, has said that African children, mostly Nigerians, are continually being killed in London because they refuse to join gangs and deal in drugs. In an interview with the Daily Trust in London, Mr Taylor explained that the callous killings of black children are mostly carried out by teenage gangs who are into drugs and are jealous of the academic performance of Nigerian and other African children in the UK. He, however, lamented that the ugly situation may continue for some time because UK laws on capital crimes are seemingly “weak” as they tend to protect the accused rather than the victim. Mr Taylor opined that only when criminals are meted punishment commensurate with their crimes that the spate of teenage killings in London would abate, and advocated the reintroduction of capital punishment in the UK. “It is only when the right form of justice is meted out to perpetrators of crime – one who kills should be killed – life for life, a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye, that those killings and other crimes will abate”. Mr Taylor also criticized the ‘total freedom’ that children enjoy under the law in the UK, which makes it an offence for parents to take disciplinary measure against their children, thus making the children do what they like. “Children feel they can do whatever they like and parents cannot even touch them. They can’t even talk to them harshly, not to talk of smacking them,” he said. On the way the authorities handled the murder of his son, Mr Taylor said the whole issue was “not handled in the right way”, but added “we can’t go back to all that”. “For me personally, I would not admit that justice had been done for the killing of my son. The law of this land is so weak. It protects the accused rather than the victim”. Daily Trust recalls that two brothers who were convicted of Damilola’s manslaughter were jailed for eight years each after a second trial, and one of them was released on conditions after serving three years, but is now back in prison after breaching conditions of his release.