By Izunna Okafor, Awka
Luck ran out of two suspected touts in Anambra State on Wednesday, as they met their waterloo in the hands of some angry youths who did not waste time to roast them alive.
The incident was said to have happened around the Bida area of Onitsha, where the angry youths were said to have captured the suspects, who were believed to be brothers.
Although it was not clearly searching what the victims committed before they were captured, some residents of the area claim that they (the victims) had been among the touts and criminal elements terrorizing the area and harassing innocent people going about their normal business is, including customers, drivers, business owners, whom the most times tortured whenever they refused to give them the amount they demanded.
This was corroborated by a video from the scene of the incident, which also captured a lady describing the victims as touts, and at the same time, also lamenting that the punishment meted out to them was too much.
“These are touts collecting illegal levies around Bida area of Onitsha. They were being set ablaze for touting. This is not good. The punishment is too much for just touting. They are children to somebody. This is the return of Bakassi Boys,” she lamented.
When contacted by this reporter Izunna Okafor, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Police Command, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu confirmed that the victims were touts and notorious criminals who had been terrorizing the area for long. He however condemned the jungle justice meted out to them, saying that suspects should always be handed over to the law enforcement agencies for proper investigation and actions.
“The Commissioner of Police, CP Aderemi Adeoye, has condemned the act and reiterated his call for members of the public to always take criminal offenders to the nearest Police Station for necessary policing actions, particularly the conduct of appropriate investigations.
“The CP has, therefore, ordered a thorough investigation of the incident.
“Meanwhile, preliminary information reveals that the two male suspects, who were later simply identified as Omaume and Monday, are members of a notorious armed robbery gang led by one Ikanda (male), already in the Correctional Service Custodial Centre.
“The gang is alleged to be responsible for several acts of attack and the dispossession of traders and unsuspecting victims of their personal belongings at the Main Market, Onitsha,” Ikenga said in a telephone interview with this reporter.
