A suspected ritualist has been set ablaze by a mob in Lapai, headquarters of Lapai local government area of Niger state.
The incident occured in Lapai on Friday afternoon shortly before the Jumma’t prayer.
The suspect identified as Dule Sakon Kano who was in custody of two children before being set ablaze was said to have confessed during interrogation by the mob that he had been in the act for some time.
He confessed that he has been supplying stolen children to their “master” within the area.
There had been incessant cases of sudden disappearances of children within and outside Lapai town for the past few months unabated.
The suspect was caught with two girls, aged between four and five, ready to be ferried to an unknown place when he was eventually caught.
It was reliably gathered that the two children were sent on an errand to buy some domestic goods from a nearby shop around 1:30p.m. on Friday shortly before the prayers.
“The suspect, before being set ablaze, had admitted to have committed the crime and that he was on his way to deliver the two children to his agent,” an eyewitness told newsmen on the phone.
The angered residents had to take laws into their hands following unabated disappearances of children from the area in recent times and without any arrest by the enforcement agents.
“The suspect took to his heel when the people discovered his mission and was apprehended along Government Girls Secondary School, GGSS, burial ground road and he was dragged on the road to the centre of Lapai town where he was eventually burnt to ashes,” the eyewitness further narrated.
He said before the Police in Lapai could get to the scene, the body of the suspect had burnt beyond recognition and the mob had disappeared from the scene.
