The Lagos State Police Command has arrested three
suspects for allegedly taking part in the lynching of five suspected armed
robbers in Mushin Area of the state on Saturday.
Police Public Relations Officer of the command,
Ngozi Braide, said on Tuesday that the suspects were arrested as part of the
ongoing investigation into the incident.
She said, “A full investigation has
commenced into the incident, I cannot give details about the involvement of the
arrested suspects for now.
“We have also invited the community leaders of
the area where the incident took place. The police will surely get to the root
of the matter.”
Braide, however, declined to give the names of
the arrested men.
The lynching of the armed robbery suspects came
weeks after a similar lynching of four students of the University of Port
Harcourt in controversial circumstances.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the five
suspected robbers were caught on Saturday evening and beaten by a mob that
consisted of residents and area boys in Mushin.
The suspected robbers were set ablaze and burnt
beyond recognition.
When our correspondent visited the area on
Tuesday, some residents were reluctant to speak on the incident for fear of
being arrested by the police.
But a trader on Vono Street, where the incident
took place, told our correspondent that some armed robbers had been terrorising
residents of the area in recent time.
The trader, who pleaded anonymity, said, “The
people of this area just took their anger on the (suspected) robbers. I don’t
really know how they were caught. I think they were said to have broken into a
shop.
“I heard somebody raised the alarm and residents
quickly reinforced and rounded up the suspects. Nobody really knows the true
story because people are afraid of talking about the incident.”
It was learnt that while the suspects were being
beaten, residents cheered and took photographs while policemen were not in
sight to stop the lynching even though there were some police stations in the
area.
Police were said to have arrived the scene after
the suspects had been burnt and the crowd had dispersed.
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