A mob has lynched a 35-year-old man, OlorunFemi Tope, after he reportedly crushed four persons to death in an accident at ljoka area of Akure, the Ondo state capital in Nigeria, on Monday.
The victim was alleged to be an internet fraudster by the mob.
His parents, who reportedly rushed to the scene while the mob were stoning him, escaped death by whiskers.
The mob reportedly encircled the parents after identifying the victim as their son, and but for the timely intervention of police detectives, they too would have been lynched by the irate mob.
The mob set ablaze the Toyota vehicle driven by the 35-year-old victim.
An eyewitness said that “the Yahoo boy was driving a Toyota car along the road and suddenly skidded off its lane to crush the victims, who were on commercial motorcycles also known as Okada.
“The driver rammed about five commercial motorcycles carrying passengers at different spots along Ijo Mimo, through Sunday bus stop, Ijoka Road.
“The victims died on the spot, while others sustained serious injuries.
“Immediately the accident happened some sympathisers who rushed to rescue the victims and the driver, later reportedly found some fetish items inside the driver’s vehicle, raising suspension that he was a ‘Yahoo Boy’.
“Angered by their discovery in the car, the sympathisers descended on the driver.
“The driver of the Toyota car, who did not sustain any injury, was said to be trying to escape from the scene when he was caught by some youths and was beaten and stoned to death.”
Vanguard learned that the corpses were deposited at the state specialist hospital in Akure metropolis, while those injured received treatment in the same hospital.
Speaking on the incident, the spokesperson for the state police command, Funmi Odunlami confirmed that the mob killed the driver of the vehicle that crushed the victims to death.
Odunlami, however, said that only two persons were killed by the driver during the accident.
According to her, “No one can confirm if the young man in question is an internet fraudster.
“There was an accident that led to the death of a motorcyclist. Rather than people around to help, some resorted to jungle justice by killing the young man Olorun Femi Tope, aged 35, who drove the vehicle and set the car ablaze.
“But for the quick intervention of the police, his parents too would have been killed. In all two people were confirmed dead.”
Odunlami added that “six others involved and injured in the accident are currently in the hospital.”
