IZUNNA OKAFOR
Five suspected phone snatchers met their waterloo in Awka, Anambra State capital on Saturday, as angry youths apprehended and set them on fire while allegedly attempting to rob some passers-by of their phones.
According to a video from the scene, currently trending on the social media, the incident happened along the Old People’s Club Road in Okpuno village, Awka.
The video showed one of the suspected robbers lying lifeless and half-naked on the road, and surrounded by the crowd, who were still raining weapons and abuse on him; while his suspected accomplices were already cruising on fire.
As that was going on, tyres, planks and other combustibles started surfacing from nowhere and landing on the suspect. The defiant mob also played some pranks with the genital organ of the suspect, before they eventually poured fuel on him and lit him up.
Okpuno village in Awka, especially the Woman Lecturer Axis, and some parts of Nodu village, have been very notorious for different kinds of robbery incidents, most especially phone snatching and other such robberies, which usually happens during early, lonely and late hours of the day.
Efforts to get the reaction of the Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Police Command, DSP Tochukwu Ikenga, on the incident, proved abortive, as his phone number did not connect, while he did not respond to messages sent to him.