Police foil jungle justice on A/Ibom burglar

 

The Police in Eket Division, Akwa Ibom police command Wednesday rescued a young man from irate youth of Uqua Street, Eket, who had concluded plans to set him ablaze for stealing clothes from a shop in the area.

The young man whose identity was not immediately known was alleged to have broken into a boutique located at Number 18, Uqua road and was unable to find his way out of the shop when he was caught in the web.

The suspect, it was gathered, gained access into the lock-up shop through the ceiling and could not climb the walls out of the shop.

An eyewitness, Mr Solomon Akpan said the suspect, who  hailed from Ikot Ekpene community in Ikot Ekpene local government area of the state was caught in the shop after he had arranged all clothes but could not escape through the ceiling which he used to enter the boutique at night.

Solomon said the owner of the shop whom he identified simply as Affiong, was said to have arrived the shop in the morning for the day’s commercial activities when he saw the suspect on the floor of her shop with the looted wares as he could not escape. 

When contacted, the shop owner, Affiong said: “I was afraid when I opened my shop with my key and saw somebody sitting on the floor with heaps of clothes carefully folded beside him.

“I was afraid to see unknown person inside my shop as I opened it for business of the day. I raised the alarm and neighbours caught him.”

Our correspondent gathered that some angry youth emerged from Ekpene Ukpa junction near Later Glory Church, Eket and forced the suspect to sit on the side of the road where they started using every available object to launch physical attack on him.

The irate mob who couldn’t bear the sight of the suspect started chanting war songs such as ” thief oooo”, “ino”, kill him,” while others rushed to a near-by petrol station and bought a four-litre petrol with the intention of burning the suspect alive.

The youth president in the area,  Mr Ime, who could not  control the mob, immediately called the police  anti cultism unit, Eket Division, who promptly came and rescued the victim from the youth.

In a telephone interview, the Police Public Relations Officer, Supol Odikko Macdon said the matter was not reported at the state headquarters but assured that investigations would commence and culprit charged to court for justice to prevail. 

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