Pandemonium broke out yesterday April 30th in Ijoko Ota in Ado-Odo-Ota LGA of Ogun State around 9amwhen a mob set 3 suspected kidnappers ablaze after their victim, one Elizerbeth Oduwole screamed for help.
Reports say the lady's scream attracted passersby who got hold of the kidnappers, beat them to a pulp before setting them ablaze. The vehicle they rode in was also set ablaze by the angry mob.
Confirming the incident, the Police PRO in the state, Muyiwa Adejobi said the victim, 26year old Elizabeth who resides in Atan-Ota had boarded a vehicle to Ewekoro but found herself in Gas Line in Ijoko were she immediately screamed for help. Continue...
“She screamed from the vehicle in which she was being taken to their den when she observed that she was in another place and the people in the area blocked the vehicle, beat the occupants, killed them and burnt them to ashes. The victim is being interrogated; the suspects were burnt to ashes. We are going to use multifaceted approach; we want to know if there had been an interaction between the suspects and the victim. The jungle justice affected our case. The people alerted us at the Headquarters instead of calling the DPO in Ota, and immediately we asked the DPO to move to the scene, but, before they got there, the suspects had been killed and burnt to ashes. It was a heavy inferno; they put tyres on the suspects and set them ablaze. We have evacuated their ashes. We have taken over the matter; we are still investigating the matter. We condemn jungle justice, people should desist from this act”, the PPRO, said.
Meanwhile on Tuesday April 29th in Abeokuta, men of the state's Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps rescued a middle aged woman named Favor Okoye from being lynched by an angry mob for allegedly kidnapping a baby at about 2.55pm along Toroto street in Abeokuta.
In a statement released by the Public Relations Officer of the NSCDC in the state, Olanrewaju Kareem, they were able to rescue the woman after a taxi driver alerted his men of a woman who had been beaten to a pulp and was in the pool of her blood
According to him, “a taxi driver alerted civil defence men keeping vigil on critical infrastructures around Akin-olugbade/Pepsi/Totoro areas that a woman has been attacked around Totoro and was about to be killed. The men quickly raced to the scene to rescue the woman but, all efforts and appeal by civil defence to allow the suspected kidnapper face the consequence through the legal process proved abortive as the mob insisted on killing the woman.
“Because of this development, the civil defence officer called office for reinforcement as a result of which armed men were deployed to the scene.“In spite of the fact that those civil defence men on ground were able to take possession of the suspect and took her towards Akin-olugbade area in order to get a vehicle to convey her to a safe place, they were still followed and were all along resisting that the woman should not be taken away.
“The situation became more violent when the armed men of civil defence arrived. They threw available objects including bottles, planks, stones among others, the mob though succeeded in breaking the windscreen of civil defence vehicle but they were able to rescue the woman from being killed.
“The woman who was in a state of coma as she could not talk was immediately rushed to the Federal Medical Centre where she is receiving treatment. She gained consciousness after one hour after the first set of treatment had been administered on her.
“We therefore appeal to members of the public to always ensure justice through legal means as jungle justice will make innocent people to suffer”, he said.
