Oluwatoyin Malik
A suspected armed robber who also engaged in raping his victims was caught and lynched by the mob early on Wednesday at Adagbada/Arola community, Apete, Ibadan, Oyo State.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that the yet-to-be-identified suspect invaded a home in the community at about 4am and robbed two ladies of their phones and money.
As said to be his usual practice, he reportedly locked one of the ladies up in a toilet and forced the other to lie down for him to rape.
However, the locked-up lady escaped from the toilet and alerted neighbours.
It was said that the neighbours raised the alarm, which made the suspect to abandon his rape target and tried to flee.
The alarm raised made many people to join others in apprehending the suspect as he made an unsuccessful effort to escape.
He was said to have thrown the phones he forcefully took from his victims over the fence of a building, from where they eventually recovered by the police in Apete Division.
Nigerian Tribune further gathered that the mob in his pursuit caught with him and descended on him until he was beaten to death.
A crowd later gathered to watch his lifeless body, while many of them who were residents of the houses where the suspect had reportedly operated before started jubilating.
Some of the residents, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune expressed how they lived in fear because of the activities of the slain suspect.
They disclosed that many ladies had been raped by the suspect, who was always armed with cutlass, over the years, but he always escaped arrest.
They told of how he would pretend to have gang members outside, barking at them to bring his gun if the victim he wanted to rape was uncooperative.
According to the sources, he would lock up residents in an invaded house and take his victim outside the building to rape.
It was learnt that among those raped was a lady who with her fiance. The fiance was reportedly locked up while he had his way with the lady.
Things came to a head last year when he was said to have raped a virgin, a situation which made many to cry in sympathy with the victim.
He was said to have carried out his act three weeks ago before he met his Waterloo on Wednesday.
Over the time, it was noticed by his victims that there were no gang members outside as he made them believe while operating.
This made the residents to be on the watchout for his antics.
The corpse was recovered by the police and taken to a mortuary to deposit.
When contacted through calls and messages, the police spokesman in the state, SP Adewale Osifeso, had yet to respond as at the time of filing the story.
