Jungle justice: Mob lynches two suspected armed robbers in Edo

Barely 24 hours after Governor Godwin Obaseki appealed to the police in Edo to return to the roads, a suspected mob lynched two suspected armed robbers and set them ablaze for alleged robbery.

There have been increased cases of robberies and violent crime across the state since policemen abandoned the streets as a result of the violent dimension the EndSARS protest assumed that led to the burning and destruction of 10 police stations in the state capital.

The two suspected robbers were apprehended near Okah Market, the road by Ighodefeyi Road along Sokponba Road where they were beaten with clubs and set ablaze by the youths believed to be from the area. An eye witness told Vanguard yesterday that “They came out early in the morning and they were robbing market women going to the market and other early risers going to their workplaces. “There have been regular cases of robbery around Sokponba Road here because the three police stations along this road namely St Saviour, Ugbegun and Idogbo have been burnt and destroyed.

“There is no single presence of police post or any other security agency here.” Also, a suspected armed robber was almost mobbed when he went into the banking hall of a new generation bank along Sapele Road and took two bales of N200,000 behaving like a staff of the bank.

He was sighted by a woman customer who later raised an alarm and the man was apprehended. Two knives were recovered from him and he was rescued by the bank security and later taken to the Edo State Police Command. A Point of Sale (PoS) operator was allegedly shot by gunmen when she resisted them as they wanted to forcefully collect cash from her.

A Toyota Camry car was reportedly snatched at gunpoint along Mission Road on Sunday around 5 pm while another car was snatched by Uwasota in Ugbowo the same day. Obaseki on Monday appealed to the police to go back to their bases just as he promised to rebuild the destroyed police stations, pay the medical bills of personnel injured and purchase of patrol vehicles for the Force. Vanguard