By Winnie Onu, Makurdi
A man recently released from the Makurdi Correctional Centre over a motorcycle theft case was on Tuesday lynched and set ablaze by a mob in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The incident happened around 8:30 a.m. opposite the NNPCL mini station near Tito Gate along Ibrahim Kashim Road in Makurdi.
Witnesses said the ex-convict allegedly stabbed a commercial motorcyclist to death after luring him to a location behind the Total filling station.
The victim was to have died instantly from multiple stab wounds to the chest and stomach.
The suspect was reportedly attempting to escape with the motorcycle when he was chased, caught, and beaten to death by an angry mob before his body was set on fire.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Benue Command, DSP Udeme Edet, said the suspect had only recently regained freedom from prison over a similar crime.
“He was said to have been caught after stealing a motorbike, but before the police got there, the mob had already set him on fire,” Edet stated.
The PPRO, however, condemned the act of jungle justice and warned that anyone found taking the law into their own hands would be prosecuted.
