Tope was killed by the mob who accused him of being an internet fraudster after the accident was buried on Monday.
A 35-year-old driver, Olorunfemi Tope, who was lynched to death by a mob in the Ijoka area of Akure, Ondo State capital, on Easter Monday after he was involved in an accident that killed two persons and injured about six others, has been buried.
Tope was killed by the mob who accused him of being an internet fraudster after the accident was buried on Monday.
A witness of the incident who preferred hidden identity for security reasons said that Tope was driving a Toyota car when the car skidded off its lane to crush the victims who were on commercial motorcycles.
But it was alleged that sympathisers who rushed to the scene of the accident to rescue the driver found some fetish items inside the vehicle, and therefore suspected that the driver was an internet fraudster popularly known in local parlance as “Yahoo Yahoo boy.”
However, the Ondo State Police Public Relations Office, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami, while confirming the incident had said that police could not establish that Tope was an internet fraudster as alleged by his killers.
“No one can confirm if the young man in question is an internet fraudster. There was an accident that led to the death of a motorcyclist, rather than people around to help, some resolved to jungle justice by killing the young man, Olorunfemi Tope, who drove the vehicle and set the car ablaze.
“But for the quick intervention of the police, his parents too would have been killed. In all, two people were confirmed dead while six others involved and injured in the accident are currently in the hospital,” the police spokesperson said.
Tope’s mother, Mrs Mojisola Olorunfemi, has insisted that her son was not an internet fraudster but an Uber driver in Lagos State but only came to Akure with his family to celebrate Easter.