Mob sets motorcycle thief ablaze in Benue

A suspected motorcycle snatcher, was set ablaze by a mob along Ibrahim Kashim road in Makurdi, the capital city of Benue on Tuesday.

According to an eyewitness account, two passengers had hired a motorcyclist known as an ‘okada rider’ to take them to the railway quarters within Makurdi.

Unknown to the motorcyclist, a gang member had stationed himself at the spot where the passengers decided to alight.

The eyewitness who simply identified himself as Andrew Tergu, said that as soon as the two passengers alighted, the other gang member who had been waiting for his accomplices approached the motorcyclist pretending to pay for the fare but rather brought out scissors and stabbed the rider several times.

Tergu said that as soon as the motorcyclist fell down and shouted for help, the three members jumped on the motorcycle to zoom off.

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“Unfortunately, as they tried to zoom off, the last person on the motorcycle fell down and people pounced on him dragged him to the main road where they set fire on him”, Tergu said.

At the time our correspondent got to the scene, some staff of the Benue State Sanitation Agency, in company with the policemen were sighted evacuating the remains of the suspected bike snatcher.

Speaking with journalists, the command’s spokesperson, Udeme Edet, said the victim had only recently been released from the correctional centre in Makurdi, where he had served a sentence for the same offence.

She explained, “Immediately we received the report, the command promptly sent a team of officers there, but before they could get there, some people around had set him ablaze, and we later discovered that the victim was recently released from a correctional centre, he was said to have been jailed for a similar offence.”

While condemning the jungle justice meted out to the suspect, Edet stressed that the command would no longer tolerate such actions.

THE PUNCH