Two suspected armed robbers met their Waterloo in the hands of youths in Akerior Ushongo Local Government Area of Benue State after they attempted to rob a shop owner.
It was gathered that the incident happened at about 9:33 pm on Wednesday when the armed robbery suspects stormed the shop of a popular Igbo trader in the area known as CK and started shooting sporadically to scare people away as they commenced their robbery business.
Sources from the area said it was not the first time that armed robbers had been robbing in the area, stressing that there had been a series of robbery attacks on residents of the settlement particularly Igbo traders.
One of our sources who did not want to be named said the armed robbers, three in number, stormed the area on one Bajaj motorcycle and wasted no time in robbing everyone around.
He said while they were at it, the youths in the area mobilised and apprehended two of the armed robbers while one managed to escape.
“They (armed robbers) shot sporadically in the air to scare residents during the robbery but youths quickly mobilised and apprehended two of them.
“A locally-made automatic rifle with rounds of ammunition was recovered from the robbers and handed over to the police.”
Our source said the matter was reported to the Divisional Police Officer at Ushongo, who visited the scene of the incident early on Thursday morning and collected the rifle and the ammunition.
“District Head of Utange, Chief Kase Audu, in company with kindred heads of Nyav, Chief Mvaaorga Ubo and kindred head of Shuav, Gumba Iorer Francis, also visited the scene,” our source stated.
When contacted, state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Catherine Anene, who confirmed the report, however, warned against jungle justice, saying the youths should have handed the suspects over to the police instead of killing them.
“The law does not permit jungle justice. It was good that the youths were able to apprehend the robbery suspects but what they should have done was to hand them over to the police instead of killing them,” Anene stated.
