Mob sets ablaze ‘one chance’ suspects in Abuja
Three suspected ‘one chance’ robbers were yesterday set ablaze by a mob at Dutsen Alhaji junction on KubwaZuba highway in Abuja.
A fourth person suspected to be their member, however, fled into the bush close to the scene of the incident with injuries sustained during the mob action.
A witness simply identified as Gabriel, said the incident happened at 7:02 am yesterday, when a three-man gang of ‘one chance’ robbers attempted to dispossess a woman of her valuables in a taxi.
He said the woman boarded the taxi from Bwari, coming to the city, when one of the suspects tried to snatch her hand bag some few metres to Dutsen Alhaji.
He said the victim immediately raised alarm while struggling with the one chance members in the vehicle, which attracted the attention of some cyclists that went after the one chance robbers.
“It was the alarm that the woman raised that attracted the attention of some motorcycle riders who gave them a hot chase,” he said.
City News learnt that the suspects were blocked under the bridge at the Dutsen Alhaji junction while they were trying to change direction and push the woman out of the car.
One of our reporters who visited the scene discovered that the first two suspects were set ablaze in their operational vehicle while the other one who attempted to escape was caught up some metres away and also set ablaze.
Our reporters gathered that the fourth person who got away injured was involved in a separate incident near Kubwa Phase 3 Area of the highway.
Some residents who operate a block business there but prefer to remain anonymous, said the incident happened almost at the same time with the Dutsen Alhaji’s. According to them, the suspect got to the area driving against traffic at frenetic speed and on arrival, parked the car and jumped out.
“Those that were trailing him hit him with some objects and set his vehicle ablaze, before we forced them to stop so as not to put us in trouble. The intervention allowed him to move into the bush though he was bleeding,” they explained.
When contacted, the spokesman of the FCT police command, DSP Anjuguri Manzah, confirmed the incidents, even as he condemned the jungle justice carried out by the mob.
He said the suspects ought to have been handed over to the police instead of some youths taking laws into their hands, adding that the police were investigating the incidents.