The suspected thieves were caught and set ablaze by the youths after they were overpowered.
Youths in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, on Wednesday, lynched two hoodlums who allegedly specialized in robbing Point of Sale (POS) operators and other soft targets in the state capital.
The suspected thieves were caught and set ablaze by the youths after they were overpowered.
Vanguard reports the incident occurred at about 10:30 am when the two robbers tried to overpower a PoS attendant while dispensing cash to customers at Ikot Oku Ikono, near the newly inaugurated fly-over on the outskirt of Uyo, the state capital.
An eyewitness, Nyenime Effiong, told journalists that the suspects ran out of luck when the alarm raised by the PoS attendant attracted angry youths, who pounced on them and set fire on them before the arrival of police.
“They thought their operation would be swift, but it turned to be the end of the road for them. They arrived on a motorcycle. One of them suddenly accosted the PoS operator with a gun and demanded cash.
“She immediately screamed at the sight of the gun, but in a swift reaction, some commercial minibus and tricycle drivers with other angry youths trooped to the scene and chased the thieves to where they were overpowered.
The criminals, who perpetrate their nefarious activities using motorcycles, according to some vigilant youths, “are also in the habits of targeting pump attendants at filling stations and supermarkets on the metropolis”.
Worried by the new wave of crimes hitting some soft targets as the Yuletide approaches, the youths, according to Effiong Bassey, have mobilized some vigilante groups in some crime-prone streets on the capital, including Ibiam, Atiku Abubakar, Ikpa Road, Urua Ekpa, Ikot Oku Ubo, and other adjoining streets.
A spokesperson for the police in the state, Odiko Macdon, condemned the act saying that jungle justice has no place in criminal justice administration.
He said, “They should have been apprehended and handed over to the police. But they took the law into their own hands. An innocent person might be killed, lynched, or wounded. So the best thing is to hand the person to the police.
“You cannot be the complainant, the police, the prosecutor, the judge in a matter of such nature. It’s becoming rampant and unacceptable. The Commissioner of Police is miffed by such development and he has said that henceforth, such an act will not be tolerated.”