A mob on Friday, set ablaze a suspected armed robber at Goodluck Jonathan Flyover bridge by the popular Itam Market off Ikot Ekpene Road Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
According to eyewitness account, the incident happened at about 11:30am.
A trader at Itam market who pleaded anonymity said people decided to beat and later set the suspected armed robber ablaze when they learned that his gang robbed a tricycle passenger.
“It was around 11:30am from my shop I started hearing people shouting ‘ where is the money’? I learnt that he and two other members of his gang, male and female, robbed one woman of her money inside the tricycle and pushed her out.
‘“I learnt the woman’s son immediately used another tricycle to pursue them and apprehended them here at the flyover bridge. Maybe as he refused to return the stolen money, those people descended on him. When they were beating him inside his tricycle, I initially thought they were dragging about fares.
“It was when they set him ablaze inside the tricycle that I decided to find out what actually happened. Even some other commercial tricycle and mini buses operators stopped at the flyover bridge and joined hands to beat him up.
He was set ablaze inside his Keke Napep, but later jumped out. Two other members of his gang, a man and a woman , escaped the scene. In fact we saw the Lady running in front of our shop, but we didn’t know what happened at that time, if not, we would have apprehended her”, our source said.
When our correspondent visited the scene of the incident at about 1:pm, the charred remains of the suspected armed robber whose gang uses tricycle to rob members of the public even in broad daylight was still smoldering.
The incident however led all the business operators along the area to close shops for fear of interrogation by the Police.
One of them standing in front of his closed shop said, “I joined others to close the shop immediately the police arrived the scene.
In fact, many people along this line ran away because nobody was ready to answer questions from the police about what happened.
