Despite repeated warning by the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni and the arrest of over 30 suspects for jungle justice, a suspected kidnapper was lynched yesterday by an angry mob in Akinpelu, Oshodi area of Lagos State.
The Guardian gathered that the suspect was killed for allegedly attempting to kidnap three babies. The Lagos State police command said he was killed before the arrival of a police patrol team. Some persons at the scene of the crime have been arrested by the Akinpelu police station.
There was pandemonium at Brown Street, Oshodi, as the suspected kidnapper was clubbed to death following the alleged kidnap of three children who were returning from their holiday coaching.
According to eyewitnesses, the alleged kidnapper was caught with a big bag, popularly known as Ghana must go, which he was struggling with along Salami Street. This prompted suspicious residents to question him, and to their surprise, they discovered three children in the bag he carried.
The abducted children were said to have lost their voices due to suffocation as they barely struggled to stay alive until they were rescued.
Sources told The Guardian that before the suspect was lynched, he alleged to be a Further Mathematics teacher from one Odeogberin International Nursery and Primary School at Owoseni Street, Oshodi but when he was taken to the school, the headmaster said he was not a teacher and had never seen him before.
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A resident, who simply identified herself as Omotoke, said area boys took the kidnapper around and asked for his identity but when no one recognized him, they stripped him of his clothes.
“When they opened his bag, two of the children appeared to have died while one was still breathing. At the sight of the lifeless bodies, the angry mob beat him until he died,” she said.
Another eyewitness said a police van drove by twice during the lynching but gave them the go ahead to kill the kidnapper.
When The Guardian visited the Akinpelu police station, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) noted that the suspect’s body has been deposited in mortuary.
Lagos State police spokesman, Olarinde Famous-Cole, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) told newsmen that the case is that of jungle justice.
According to Famous-Cole, “the information I received from the DPO is that someone was lynched by a mob for attempting to kidnap two babies. The DPO has been waiting for anyone to come and report attempted kidnap of his or her babies, but as we speak no one has shown up. Before our police officers could get to scene, the suspect was killed.
“Our officers took the body of the suspect to the hospital and arrested some persons who were at the scene when the incident happened in order to aid our investigation.”
The Lagos State police boss, Fatai Owoseni, who spoke to The Guardian on telephone, noted that he has not been briefed about the matter.
(The Guardian)
