The unrest in Ikorodu has continued as lives and properties have continued to be lost.
Four youths were lynched by a mob in Araromi suburb of Ikorodu, Lagos on Friday when a land-grabbing matter degenerated into an attack and counter-attack.
It was gathered that learnt from residents of the community that around 10am on Friday, the victims had stormed a building site around the community, in retaliation for a previous attack.
A resident, who pleaded anonymity, alleged that the victims were land-grabbers popularly called omo-onile in Lagos.
According to the resident, on Thursday evening, there was an attack by land-grabbers on the people working on the land in question.
“We don’t really know the identity of the people involved but it seemed today, the people who were attacked on the land on Thursday, reinforced and came to the area today,” he said.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the four victims had successfully carried out their attack and were on their way back when they were ambushed around Araromi and a crowd lynched them when some weapons were found on them.
Some residents said it was believed that they were followers of Badoo, a dreaded rapist and robber who had been accused of carrying out many attacks in the past year in Ikorodu and environs.
A resident explained that the victims were chased to Araromi by the people they earlier attacked, accusing them of killing one of them.
Saturday PUNCH had not been able to confirm such killing as of the time of filing this report.
But when the victims were confronted at Araromi, a crowd that gathered became violent when they were told that they were Badoo’s followers.
A community leader in the area, Alhaji Karim Adebola, told Saturday PUNCH that he received a call when the youths were first apprehended.
He said, “When they called me that they had caught four Badoo’s boys, I told them to be patient. I called a policeman around Imota and told them to help find out what was happening in our community because I was not at home.
“They called me after they got there and said the four youths had been killed before they got there. I later got the reports that the residents said they found guns on the victims. They said the victims were being chased from Okegbodo till they were caught at Araromi.”
Shortly after the murder of the youths, a mob of youths from another community where the victims were said to have come from, descended on Araromi and started destroying houses.
Adebola who called on police authorities in the state for help, explained that some houses were being burnt as the angry youths protested the killing.
It was learnt that the rampaging youths denied any connection between the victims and Badoo.
As of the time of filing this report, the identity of the victims had not been determined.
A video shot at the scene of the victim’s lynching, which was obtained by our correspondent showed they might have been beating to death with large sticks as their battered bodies lay in a heap with tires around them as many people in the crowd standing around the corpses held phones recording the scene.
