The Azikiwe Police Division in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has rescued a woman named Maria Kobara from a crowd after she was accused of abducting a 12-year-old girl on Owo Street in Mile 2, Diobu, Port Harcourt.
Mr. Nelson Ogiriya, an eyewitness who spoke with our correspondent, said he saw a mob assembled on Owo Street and decided to investigate what happened.
According to Ogiriya, if the police had not acted quickly on that fateful day (Saturday, June 13), the woman would have been lynched.
He stated, “As I was passing, I saw a crowd on Owo Street, so I tried to find out what was happening. I discovered that a woman was taking a 12-year-old girl to church when another woman stopped her and asked who the child was to her.
“The woman explained that the girl’s mother had asked her to take the child to a church on Eagle Island. However, the woman who stopped them called the child’s father, who in turn contacted his wife to confirm whether she had given their daughter to anyone to take to church.
“The mother confirmed that she had indeed sent the child with the woman, but before the confirmation came, some people had already started beating her and accusing her of stealing the child. It was in the course of the assault that the police arrived and took everyone involved to the station.”
When reached, the Rivers State Police Command’s spokesman, SP Grace Iringe-Koko, verified that agents from the Azikiwe Police Division rescued the woman from the crowd.
According to a police spokesperson, preliminary investigations found that a relative of the 12-year-old girl’s father sounded an alarm, attracting passersby and locals to the area.
“The mob ignored all explanations made by the woman that she knew the child’s mother and that the mother was aware of their movement.
“The woman was being physically assaulted by the mob, who accused her of attempting to steal the child when our officers arrived and rescued her.
“At the station, the child’s mother confirmed that the woman was not a child thief as speculated. Rather, she was on her way to clean a branch of their church on Eagle Island in Port Harcourt when she was intercepted and falsely accused,” the police spokesperson stated.
She asked locals to report suspicious situations to the police rather than taking extrajudicial acts.
The police image maker advised against mob action and jungle justice, emphasizing that such activities would not be condoned under any pretext by the command.
She stressed that anyone or group of people participating in such illegal conduct would face the full force of the law.
