POLICE
Days after refuting claims that a 7-year-old boy was burnt to death for stealing, the Lagos State Police Command has said it has located the charred remains of the suspect.
The police had denied the the incident happened in the state and had appealed to Lagosians to help them identify the culprits in the brutal murder of the young boy.
The boy, who reports say was seven-year-old, was burnt to death in the Orile area of the state.
The photos and videos of the young boy as he was being beaten and burnt to death by a mob made the rounds in the social media.
He was said to have been nabbed while trying to break into a shop where foodstuff are sold.
Some unidentified men in the area nabbed him and reportedly descended on him.
They beat him to a pulp before hanging a tire on his neck and setting him ablaze.
According to the state Commissioner of Police, CP, Fatai Owoseni, the suspect was believed to be between 20 and 25 years old, and not seven-year-old as widely reported.
While speaking with newsmen at the police headquarters yesterday, the CP noted that the lynching occurred around 4am penultimate Saturday.
He added that the police had contacted an emergency agency of the state government to remove the corpse.
The CP said some members of the gang had been previously arrested, arraigned in court, but released on bail, adding that members of the public should join hands to fight the menace of jungle justice.
The CP said, “In the course of police investigation, it was discovered that the fellow that was lynched in the video was an adult. It would not be charitable to put the blame on the police. It is a menace that all of us should fight. The police will continue to make arrests when crimes are committed.
“The police found his decomposing body in a canal somewhere in the Orile area. He was an adult of between 20 and 25 years.
“The state emergency management agency was contacted to remove the corpse. Our inquiries revealed that he and two members of his gang had attacked a victim with a machete in order to snatch his wallet and mobile phone.
“It was also found out that his gang members had been operating in the area for a while. Some of the gang members had, at one time or the other, been arraigned in court and through the judicial process of securing bail, found themselves out again.
“During this particular incident, the mob collected the machete from the suspect and attacked him. In as much as we condemn all acts of impunity and people taking laws into their hands, you will agree that what happened was a societal problem,” he explained.
