- The trio were apprehended by the vigilant village team late Tuesday night
- However, fearing that the security teams might take away the culprits, the villagers turned on them, using machetes and clubs to attack them
On Wednesday, two individuals were lynched for damaging electrical distribution infrastructure in Aba, Abia State, while their accomplice managed to escape.
This incident unfolded in Okpulor Umuobo, a village situated in Osisioma Ngwa Local Government Area.
Sources suggest that one of the lynched individuals hailed from Okpulor Umuobo village, known for years as a troublemaker, while the other was from Ogbor Hill in Abia South council area. Both victims were in their late 30s.
A community leader, preferring anonymity due to lack of authorization to speak to the media, mentioned that the trio were apprehended by the vigilant village team late Tuesday night. The vigilantes successfully subdued the vandals and apprehended them, along with an 18-seater Hiace bus they arrived in.
However, fearing that the security teams might take away the culprits, the villagers turned on them, using machetes and clubs to attack them.
“The vigilante men kept the criminals in their custody and invited both officers of the Nigeria Police Force and Geometric Security Services Ltd around 7 am”, said an eyewitness who didn’t want her name revealed in the press for fear of reprisal attacks by other criminals in Aba and environs.
Even though the police officers from the Abayi Division and the security men from Geometric Services, a subsidiary of Geometric Power which owns Aba Power, arrived within 15 minutes of being informed of the arrest of the criminals, the two vandals were almost dead when the teams reached there, according to the eye witness.
The villagers were so angry with the thieves that they were removing a bus load of aluminum conductor which Aba Power installed less than a month ago at a high cost, according to Mike Nwocha, a community leader.
Nkwocha disclosed that the he crowd wanted to burn the bus used by the thieves to convey the stolen materials, but he and his colleagues, including the policemen sent by the Divisional Police Officer of Abayi, Superintendent Okwudili Idoko, pleaded with them not to do so because that would mean incinerating the company’s materials which the gallant vigilante members collected from the vandals.
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