Angry youths set two PoS robbers ablaze in Akwa Ibom

Angry youths in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom state capital, on Wednesday administered jungle justice on two suspected criminals said to be specializing in robbing Point of Sale (POS) operators, dispossessing them of cash, phones and other valuables at gunpoint.

It was gathered that the incident occurred at about 10:30 am, when two robbers on a motorcycle tried to overpower a PoS attendant, while dispensing cash to customers at Ikot Oku Ikono, near the newly commissioned fly-over bridge, on the outskirt of Uyo, the state capital.

Nyenime Effiong, a tricycle operator, who witnessed the incident, told newsmen that the suspects ran out of luck when the alarm raised by the PoS attendant attracted angry youths, who seized them and immediately set them alight before the arrival of Police operatives.

“They thought their operation would be swift, but it turned to be end-of-the-road for them. They arrived on a motorcycle and the one on the passenger seat alighted and suddenly accosted the PoS operator with a gun and demanded cash.

“She immediately screamed at the sight of the gun, but in a swift reaction, some commercial minibus and tricycle drivers with other angry youths trooped to the scene, chased the thieves to where they were overpowered.

“Before the motorcycle rider, who was still steaming the bike while waiting for his fellow accomplice to get the cash from the attendant could escape, he was apprehended before he could speed away”, he explained.

The criminals, who perpetrate their nefarious activities using motorcycles, according to some vigilant youths, “are also in the habits of targeting pump attendants at filling stations and supermarkets on the metropolis”.

Worried by the new wave of crimes hitting some soft targets as the yuletide approaches, the youths, according to Effiong Bassey, have formed some vigilance groups in some crime-prone streets on the capital. including Ibiam, Atiku Abubakar, Ikpa Road, Urua Ekpa, Ikot Oku Ubo and other adjoining streets.

However, the Commissioner of Police (CP), Mr Amiengheme Andrew, according to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mr Odiko Macdon, had warned residents not to take the laws into their own hands by administering jungle justice on criminal suspects.

“Jungle justice has no place in law”, he said, advising that “civilians have the power to arrest suspects, but must hand them over to the Police for diligent investigation and prosecution”.

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