A 70-year-old woman, Bisi Egberegbe, was nearly lynched on Saturday for allegedly stealing a 2-year-old boy in the Yaba area of Lagos.
The mob alleged that the suspect belonged to a gang of ritualists who were desperately looking for money for the yuletide celebrations but was rescued by a group which handed her over to the police.
It was gathered that the suspect allegedly abducted the child, Useni Abdullahi, from where he was playing by the side of his mother’s shop in the Yaba area, but that luck ran against her when some neighbours who saw her going away with the child raised alarm.
“The old woman was almost killed by the mob but for the timely intervention of members of the Community Development Association (CDA) who pleaded with the mob not to take the law into their hands,” a resident who identified herself as Yemisi said.
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Meanwhile, the Lagos State police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the incident, said, “A group of people brought the old woman who had been seriously beaten by a mob. When she was brought to the station, she was soaked with blood dripping from injuries sustained from the beating.
“When she was asked, she said one woman selling plastic at Oniwaya asked her to bring the child.
“The child, identified as Useni Abduahi (2), of Kilani Street, Agege, was later handed over to his mother who also identified herself as Fatima Abdullahi.”
Hundeyin added that effort was on to arrest the said plastic seller.
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