The Obadeyi Ajala area of Ijaiye Local Government Area of Lagos State is reported to be under tension following the killing of two kidnap suspects by a mob.

The angry crowd, who could not be controlled by the police, was said to have descended on the suspects and set them on fire, as they ran out of a hideout said to be a den of kidnappers.

It was gathered that the mob had laid siege to the area early on Tuesday morning after a highway sweeper with the Lagos State Waste Management Agency raised an alarm, on hearing the voice of a woman allegedly kidnapped by the suspects and their accomplices.

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, speaking to Channels Television, gave an account of how the residents meted out jungle justice on the suspects before the Police could intervene.

He said: “All this started at about 9:00 O’clock when information came out to say that a female voice was heard shouting “help, help” under the canal here by some of the street sweepers and in the process, some people around moved in to help and the Divisional Police Officer around this area was contacted, who immediately got to the place.

“So while they were trying to assist the person that shouted help, they also noticed that some fellows also attempted to run out of the canal with an object in their mouth that looked fetish and that made the crowd to suspect something unusual and immediately after they pounced on those two fellows that seemed to be pursuing the woman that was shouting help and unfortunately, in a mob action like this after the crowd had searched forward, they started jungle justice on those two fellows so we had to reinforce and in the process, people had pointed to some buildings as being suspected to be harbouring some people that are believed to be engaged in some ritual killings or kidnapping and the Police took the lead to that place.”

Reports say two of the suspected kidnappers have been arrested by the Police while a search is said to be ongoing for the kidnap victim.

•Adapted from a Channels TV report.

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