Suspected okada thief set ablaze in Nasarawa

A man suspected to be a motorcyclist thief, was on Friday, set ablaze by angry youths at a workers’ village, along Kilema Doma road in Lafia, Nasarawa State, while allegedly trying to snatch a motorcycle, popularly called okada in the area.
Confirming the incident to Sunday Tribune in a telephone interview, the Deputy Police Public Relations Officer (DPPRO), Nasarawa State command, Mr Cornelius Ocholi, said seven persons had been arrested in connection with the incident.
According to him, men of the state police command swung into action when information reached them that a man alleged to be an okada thief was being mobbed, saying that before his men got to the scene of the incident, the man had been set ablaze by a vigilance group in the area, while his gang members ran away.
He explained that, “effort made by the police to get the names of the accomplice proved abortive as nobody could be found at the scene of the event, where the suspected thief was set ablaze.”
According to an eye witness, angry youths, who arrested him, told him to take some of them to the scene of the incident, where he was beaten and set ablaze, though another resident of the area claimed that the suspected thief died while receiving medical attention at Araf Dalhatu Specialist Hospital, Lafia.
The Nasarawa State Police Commissioner, Mr Abayomi Akaremale, has, however, warned members of the public from taking laws into hands.
According to him, what the mob did was unlawful, adding that they should have called on the police when the suspect was caught, rather than taking laws into their hands.

Tribune