Two suspected ritualists have been set ablaze in Oja Odan, Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State.
Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, disclosed this via a statement issued on Sunday, warning Ogun residents are against taking the laws into their hands.
He said the suspects were arrested and taken to Oja Odan Divisional Headquarters following an allegation that a fresh human head, concealed in a sack, was seen with them.
“While the suspects were been interrogated in the station, some unscrupulous elements went and mobilized a large number of people who invaded the station aggressively, overwhelmed the police personnel on duty and subsequently hijacked the suspects, beat them to death, and set their corpses ablaze,” the police statement read.
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He, therefore, warned that the Ogun State Police Command will not tolerate such barbaric and unlawful action.
“In view of the incident, the command wishes to sound a note of warning to those who are always in the habit of taking laws into their hands to desist from such uncivilized behaviour as the command will henceforth be dealing with whoever carried out such activities in the most decisive manner,” the police said.
While noting that a suspect remains a suspect until he/she is convicted by a court of competent jurisdiction, the police spokesman maintained that “only the court that has the power to impose punishment on anyone found guilty of a crime, not an individual or group of people”.
On his part, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Lanre Bankole, ordered a full-scale investigation into the incident with the view to bringing to justice those who participated in the act. He also appealed to members of the public to have confidence in the nation’s criminal justice system and desist from self-help as such is alien to the laws of the land.
