A mob in Benin City, the Edo State capital, yesterday lynched and set ablaze two suspected armed robbers. The action came a day after the governor, Godwin Obaseki, paid a visit to the state’s police command where he appealed to the police to return to their duty posts across the state.

The two victims were apprehended near Okah Market on the ever-busy Sokponba Road. It was gathered that the suspected armed robbers came out very early in the morning and were robbing market women and passersby.

The mob comprising youth from the area beat the robbers to a pulp with clubs and set them ablaze.

A witness, Amebo Efe, told newsmen that the robbery incident happened in the early hours of Tuesday. She said: “They came out early in the morning and they were robbing women going to the market and other early risers going to their workplaces. There have been regular cases of robbery around Sakponba 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 and the robbers were taking advantage of this.”  

It would be recalled that two correctional centres in Benin were attacked by hoodlums, releasing almost 2,000 inmates, including many condemned criminals.

In another development, a suspected armed robber was arrested yesterday in the banking hall of a new generation bank on Sapele Road, Benin, after stealing N200,000, while pretending to be a member of staff of the bank, before a female customer raised the alarm, which led to his arrest. Two knives were recovered from him and he was handed over to the police with the exhibits.

Meanwhile, a Point of Sale (PoS) operator was also yesterday shot by armed robbers in Benin, when she resisted criminals who attempted to dispossess her of a huge sum of money, but the woman survived the gunshot and rushed to a nearby hospital.

Also, a Toyota Camry saloon car was snatched at gunpoint along Mission Road and another car was also snatched at Ugbowo, both in Benin.

Edo Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Chidi Nwabuzor, could not be reached as at press time, but a source at the police headquarters, who spoke in confidence, confirmed the incidents.

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