Kidnappers Beaten, One Burned To Death In Akure

An angry crowd of young people beat and burned a man suspected of being a kidnapper in Akure, Ondo State capital today according to witnesses.

A person with knowledge of the attack said the young people came from Ayedun quarters in Akure, and had been monitoring the man before they dragged him to Adegbola Junction, hit and beat him, and set him on fire.

Akura division policemen tried to intervene but were beaten off by the youths, and people who witnessed the attack shouted they had lost hope in local police to prevent other attacks. Others threw rocks at the van of security agents.

Adegbola Junction is the mid section for Oba Adesida and Oyemekun roads in the Akure, and is a popular gathering place newspaper and magazine correspondents and journalists.

In a related incident, a woman was also grabbed and almost burned by residents of Owode in Akure.  

According to a person with knowledge of the assault, the incident began when a fetish item fell out of the woman's bag.  When people alerted the woman, she refused to return to pick up the item which raised suspicion among people on the street.  Youths grabbed the woman, beat her and she confessed that 15 people were sent from Ede in Osun state to carry out kidnappings.  She said they regularly report their movements and details on their kidnappings to a sponsor and godfather in Ede.

The youths then poured petrol on the woman's body but before they could set her on fire Ondo State Police Officers intervened. To break up the crowd, police shot canisters of teargas and threatened to arrest anyone who approached the woman.

The woman, 60, who refused to give her name, had tribal marks on her checks and said she was a trader at Oja timi'in Ede town, Osun State.  She was dressed in rags with fetish items in her bag which included: paper containing lists of peoples' mobile number, money in various denominations, sponge and local soap (Oose dudu), white sheets containing Yoruba incantations, traditional rings and a white rosary.  She refused to say who her sponsor was who gave her to orders to kidnap school children.

The State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Wole Ogodo, confirmed the incidents but implored the public to avoid engaging in jungle justice and warned anyone who was caught breaking the law would be punished.