Follow Us on Google
From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Irate youths at Oja-Odan in Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State are reported to have lynched two men caught with a fresh human head.
The suspects, Idowu Afolabi and Johnson Adebiyi, had earlier been arrested and detained at Oja Odan police station on Saturday.
However, some youths were said to have forcefully broken into the police cell to drag out the two suspected ritualists.
A source who spoke to our correspondent, said the youths, who were in their hundreds, dragged the suspects to an open space in front of the police station and set them on fire.
“The youths caught the two men with a fresh human head. The police came to take the suspects away. But about an hour later, the youths, said the killers must be dealt with immediately. That was why they mobilised themselves in their hundreds to the police station in Oja Odan.
“The youths forced themselves into the police cell, dragged the suspects to an open space in front of the police station and set them on fire,” the source stated.
Meanwhile, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement on Sunday condemned what he described as “unlawful killing and setting ablaze” of the suspected ritualists.
He warned that the police command would no longer tolerate such jungle justice.
The statement reads: “In the early hours of Saturday 12th of February 2022, two suspected ritualists were arrested and brought to Oja Odan Divisional Headquarters by some vigilant and law-abiding members of the public, with allegations that a fresh human head concealed in a sack was seen with them.
“While the suspects were being interrogated in the station, some unscrupulous elements went and mobilised a large number of people who invaded the station aggressively, overwhelmed the police personnel on duty and subsequently hijacked the suspects, beaten them to death and set their corpses ablaze.
“In view of the incident, the command wishes to sound a note of warning to those who are always in the habit of taking laws into their hands to desist from such uncivilised behaviour as the command will henceforth be dealing with whoever carries out such action in the most decisive manner.
“A suspect remains a suspect until he/she is convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction no matter how grievous the crime the suspect is alleged to have committed might be. It is only the court that has the power to impose punishment on anyone found guilty of a crime, not an individual or group of people.
“Therefore, the Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, has ordered a full-scale investigation into the incident with the view to bringing to justice those who participated in carrying out the barbaric and unlawful killing of the suspects.
“The CP appealed to members of the public to have confidence in the nation’s criminal justice system and desist from self-help as such is alien to the laws of the land.”
