Money ritual: How mob overpowered police, set 2 suspects ablaze

A mob at the weekend broke into the police station at Oja-Odan in Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State and took out two suspected ritualists and set them ablaze.

Our correspondent reports that the suspects, Idowu Afolabi and Johnson Adebiyi, caught with a human head, were arrested and detained at the police station.

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Witnesses said the mob overpowered the police and took the suspects from custody and burnt them in front of the station.

A youth, simply identified as Adeyemi, said, “The youths caught the two men with a fresh human head. The police came to take the suspects away. But about an hour later, the youths said the killers must be dealt with immediately. That was why they mobilised themselves in their hundreds to the police station.”

Earlier on Saturday, a couple was arrested with fresh human parts at Leme area of Abeokuta, the state capital.

Two weeks ago, four boys were arrested for slaughtering and burning the head of a girl for money ritual in Abeokuta.

The police spokesman in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, on Sunday, confirmed that the mob “invaded the station, overwhelmed the police personnel on duty and hijacked the suspects, beat them to death and set their corpses ablaze.”

Oyeyemi described the action as “jungle justice”, saying it had no place in Nigerian law.

He further said, “In view of the incident, the command wishes to sound a note of warning to those who are always in the habit of taking laws into their hands to desist from such uncivilised behaviour as the command will henceforth be dealing with whoever carries out such action in the most decisive manner. A suspect remains a suspect until he/she is convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction no matter how grievous the crime he/she is suspected to have committed. It is only the court that has the power to impose punishment on anyone found guilty of a crime, not an individual or group of people.”

Oyeyemi said the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had ordered a full scale investigation into the incident with the view to bring to justice those who participated in carrying out the barbaric and unlawful killing of the suspects.