A suspected motorcycle thief was lynched and set ablaze by a mob on Tuesday along Ibrahim Kashim Road in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
Eyewitnesses said the incident occurred after two passengers allegedly hired a commercial motorcyclist, popularly known as an ‘okada rider’, to convey them to the Railway Quarters area of the city.
Unknown to the motorcyclist, a gang member had stationed himself at the spot where the passengers decided to alight.
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.
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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.