TRACKING___· Dying suspects blame action on hunger
Aggrieved residents allegedly killed three suspected members of a robbery gang who invaded Igando community, a Lagos suburb, Tuesday.
The suspects according to residents were members of the ‘One Million Boys’ terror gang, who had earlier written a letter on their unprecedented visit, warning residents to keep cash for them or have their wrists chopped off.
When Vanguard arrived at the community by 12 noon Tuesday, the corpses were found floating on a canal by the link bridge between Igando/Abaranje.
Residents told Vanguard that since the lockdown, terror gangs had threatened to attack communities in Igando, thereby forcing them to form vigilante group.
Explaining how the suspects met their dead-end, one of the residents, Mr Ojo Majekodunmi, said, “ On Monday night, there was an uproar everywhere that these bad boys were approaching our area. We armed ourselves with cutlasses and took positions. But we did not see them until 5am when we heard they were at Sadiku Olowora street. By the time we got there, the vigilante group whose members are OPC had already overpowered three of them.
“Cutlasses and a lighter was found on them. During interrogation, one of them said the lighter was meant to burn victims’ window nets, in order to gain access into their apartments”.
Another resident, Kelechi Nwamobi, said, ” one of the suspects said they didn’t mean to kill anyone. In his dying state, he begged everyone he had stolen from since the lockdown started, to forgive him, saying, they were forced to burgle homes because of hunger”.
However, the suspects as reliably gathered, were discovered not to be members of the One Million Boys, but burglars.
Seven persons, all members of a vigilante group, have been arrested by policemen from Ikotun division. They were faulted for taking laws into their hands by snuffing life out of the suspects, who were said to have been without any gun, as initially claimed by residents.
Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command, CP Hakeem Odumosu, has ordered for further investigation into the matter.
