A student of the University of Calabar, was on Wednesday killed by a mob at about 9pm, for allegedly snatching a phone and a lady’s handbag.
The undergraduate said to be operating with someone now at large was alleged to have boarded a taxi at Marian Road to Calabar South and had asked the driver to stop when they got to Goldie by Atu Street junction. While stepping down from the taxi, one of them reportedly grabbed the lady’s handbag who sat next to him while the other snatched her phone.
“When the lady raised alarm, some people chased the boys and one managed to escape while the other hid himself in the gutter in front of my house,” Dr Emmanuel Effiong Ene, a lecturer who witnessed the incident said.
According to him, when one of the thieves escaped, the mob came after the one who was hiding close to the scene of the incident stoning and cudgeling him as they found him.
“I heard someone scratch a machete on the ground and soon after the boy began to scream as he was being dealt machete blows,” he said.
Blood splattered as the victim was dragged from the gutter in front of 1 Gibson Street and dumped at the junction between Goldie and Gibson. He was dead already.
“Some people bought tyres from the nearby motor mechanic workshop to set him ablaze but only his head and eyes caught fire,” he added.
The Deputy Superintendent of Police who led the team of policemen to take the decapitated body away at about 9am yesterday, said the body would be taken to the General Hospital Calabar for autopsy.
“It is against the law to just bury anybody who is killed in mob action without post mortem examination because in the event of any arrest and subsequent legal action, the cause of death has to be presented as evidence,” DSP Edem said.
It’s a pity. I’m not happy with the mob’s action of killing this petty thief. We have seasoned thiefs that are stealing millions of naira that is ours on daily basis and yet instead of stoning such people we bow down to them in homage!
They’d had beaten him black and blue and handed him over to the police, this one is legally acceptable. But it’s really a pity that because of common mobile phone people will kill a soul!!! Haba nija people?
Nigerian Police Wahala. Someone has been killed in a daylight mob action, yet they still need an autopsy.
Whether he stole item worth N50 or 5 billion, jungle justice is never acceptable. Applying mob action to a fellow human is downright callous.
Why is jungle justice only applied to the lower and sometimes the middle class citizens and never the upper class citizens. I am very sure that those that killed the boy will be the first to dobale for any civil servant ACCUSED and CONVICTED for stealing billions. I weep for this country.
只要能够正确使用，你的头脑就是你最有用的资源。