A suspected armed robber was on Friday set ablaze by an angry mob at the Goodluck Jonathan Flyover by the popular Itam Market off Ikot Ekpene Road, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
According to an eyewitness who spoke to Saturday Vanguard in confidence that the incident happened about 11:30 am on Friday.
Our source and trader at Itam market disclosed that people decided to beat and later set the suspected armed robber ablaze when they learned that his gang robbed a woman of money inside the tricycle, a.k.a Keke Napep.
“It was around 11:30 am from my shop I started hearing people shouting where is the money. I learnt that he and two other members of his gang, a man and woman robbed one woman of her money inside the tricycle and pushed her out inside town.
“I learnt the woman’s son immediately used another tricycle to pursue them and catch them here at the flyover. Maybe as he refused to return the money they stole those people descended on him. When they were beating him inside his tricycle, I thought they were dragging about transport fare.
“It was when they now set him ablaze inside the tricycle that I decided to find out what actually happened. Even some other commercial tricycle and Mini Bus operators stopped at the Flyover and joined hands to beat him up.
“He was set ablaze inside his Keke Napep, but he later jumped out. But two other members of his gang, a man and woman succeeded to run away. In fact, we saw the Lady run past in front of our shop, then we didn’t know what happened, we would have caught her”, our source said.
When Vanguard visited the scene of the incident at about 1:pm the charred remains of the suspected armed robber whose gang uses tricycles to rob members of the public even in broad daylight was still smouldering.
The incident however led all the business operators along the area to close shops for fear of interrogation by the Police.
One of them met standing in front of his closed shop said, “I joined others to close shop immediately the police arrived the scene. In fact, many people along this line ran away because nobody is ready to answer questions from the police about what happened.”
Source: Vanguard
