One out of a four-man armed robbery gang who operates with a tricycle and has been terrorising residents and passengers in Onitsha was set ablaze by an irate mob during an attempt to rob at gunpoint.
The suspected robbers were alleged to be operating along Army Barracks/Upper Iweka/Borromew Round-about axis, Asaba/Onitsha/Enugu Expressway, Anambra State.
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It was gathered that the incident happened on Sunday afternoon.
An eyewitness, who simply identified herself as Rose said, “I saw it all how it happened because I was at this Green Grain Market, (near Army Barracks) when the robbers stopped their tricycle to rob some people who were waiting to board vehicles.
“They were about four of them but the one that was driving the Keke was the one that was apprehended and set ablaze by some angry youths who saw what was happening and pursued the robbers. The three others escaped abandoning the getaway driver.”
“The tricycle driver could not run because he was a tall, fat man and elderly in appearance. So they set him ablaze with fuel and fairly used tyres even as he was shouting that he was not an armed robber.”
As the mob was about to set the suspected robber ablaze, some tricycle operators stormed the scene and pleaded with the angry mob not to set him ablaze.
They said, “We know him, he is not an armed robber, we believe he was forced at gun-point by the three-man armed robbers that escaped unhurt, when they flagged him down pretending to be passengers unknown to him, to take them to that market.”
The burnt corpse of the tricycle operator was still lying at the scene of the incident waiting to be removed.
When contacted, the state police spokesman, Ikenga Tochukwu, said he was not aware of the incident as “the information had not got to him”.
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