A suspect accused of dispossessing unsuspecting victims of personal effects, especially mobile phones was on Tuesday set ablaze by the residents of Obio Offot in Uyo local government area of Akwa Ibom state.
Local vigilantes also apprehended another petty thief at about 11am after snatching a phone and fled into a ravine bordering Eka Street and the adjoining Asutan Street, also in Uyo, the state capital.
The suspect was reportedly dragged to one secluded compound by Ebong Street where he was about to be lynched, but for a quick intervention by an armed policeman who rescued him from the mob and took him to the nearby ‘A’ Division Police station in Uyo.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the unlucky suspect was set ablaze at Obio Offot Community along Abak Road after stealing removing unspecified phones of members of the Island of Pamus Church, while members were fast asleep, and waiting for the early morning prayer and worship session.
“I don’t really know what happened that all of us were still fast asleep at the time the thief stole late night into the Church and removed all the worshipers’ phones.
“We only took a nap, so we can wake around 4am for the early morning prayer and worship session. To our surprise, when we woke up to prepare for the service, behold, we were amazed that we could not find our phones.
“When the Pastor came and heard our lamentations, he mounted the pulpit and took our cry to God, that we cannot be in His (God’s) house and something so sad like this happened. He vowed that God would not allow the thief to survive the next couple of hours,” one of the worshippers who identified herself as Aniebiet, recalled.
Our Correspondent gathered that the thief, said to have been terrorising the Obio Offot community and its environs was caught about an hour later while trying to also steal at the neighbouring Saint Mary’s Catholic Church, as worshippers raised the alarm.
The locals, who had been on the manhunt for some time, following incessant cases of thefts, rose up, apprehended and later set the unnamed suspect ablaze after binding his hands behind his back.
However, the state Police Command has condemned extrajudicial killings of criminal suspects.
Commissioner of Police in the state, CP Baba Azare, through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Timfon John maintained that the police has zero tolerance for crimes of any sort and warned that jungle justice has no place in the constitution.
She explained that members of the civil society have the right to apprehend criminal elements, but must hand the suspects over to the Police for diligent prosecution to avoid extrajudicial killing of innocent persons.