Mayhem in my hometown as ritualists den of horror has made entire communities take the law into their own hands. One madman caught with suspected human tongues
AS the uproar over the discovery of a kidnappers’ den at Soka area, Ibadan, Oyo State, is yet to die down, 25 pieces of items suspected to be human tongues were found in the possession of a ‘madman’ at Oluyole area of the capital city.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that one of two other ‘madman’ suspected to be working with the one arrested was mobbed to death while the other one was seriously injured and was rushed to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, for medical treatment.
Since the unearthing of the kidnappers’ den last Saturday, residents of Ibadan had decided to take their fate in their own hands as they turned themselves to vigilantes going around on the lookout for those they suspected of pretending to be mad people.
Their efforts led to the different discoveries on Tuesday.
Also, two female destitute were nearly mobbed to death at Muslim area of Ibadan on Tuesday after two handsets and new cutlasses were found on them.
About 2,000 people reportedly swooped on them and macheted them, inflicting deep injuries on them in the process, on the suspicion that they were kidnappers disguising as mad people.
The mob was said to have almost set them ablaze before policemen from Idi Aro Division, who were alerted, rescued them.
They were rushed to State Hospital, Adeoyo, Ibadan for medical attention while two handsets- one Nokia and one Visafone – were recovered from them.
The mob was said to have stopped vehicular movement along Iwo Road-Toll Gate expressway at Muslim area, until policemen drafted to the scene dispersed them and restored peace to the area.
Similarly, another destitute was found at Elekuro area of the city on same day with a lot of N50 and N20 notes kept in a polythene bag.
Immediately the mob discovered this, they reportedly descended on him and almost lynched him to death but he was also rescued by the police.
As of the time of filing this report, the policemen counting the money were said to have sorted out N47,000 from the cash.
When contacted on the story of possession of human tongues, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor, a Superintendent of Police, said the suspect and the exhibits had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation.
She, however, said that the police could not determine if the items recovered were indeed human tongues, stating further that only forensic analysis would reveal what they were.
The PPRO warned against people taking laws into their own hands, saying that they should allow police to do their job.
“Forensic test will also help us to prove if the tongues found with them were those of human beings or not.
“It is, however, obvious that the Soka incident is the reason behind this upheaval against madmen, but people should stop taking laws into their hands.
“While members of the public may apprehend a suspect, they do not have any right to carry out extra judicial killings.
“Instead, they should hand over such suspects to the police,” Ilobanafor said.
NAN reports that two suspects were attacked at Oni and Sons area of Ibadan between 10.30 a.m and 1.30 p.m.
The third suspect was attacked at New Adeoyo Road at about 11.30 a.m.
Items found with the suspects included a box containing three suspected human tongues, knives, cell phones and a notepad.
