Wole Balogun, Ado Ekiti
A yet-to-be-identified young man was on Monday was lynched by a mob in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, for allegedly consuming human feaces at Matthew Street neighbourhood in the town.
Our learnt that the suspect was taken round parts of the state capital, including Okeyinmi, Matthew Street, Ijigbo and others, before he was returned to Odo Ado, where he was lynched.
Eyewitnesses said he was suspected to be a ritualist and was killed allegedly for consuming feaces.
When our correspondent arrived at the scene, the victim had been partly burnt and he was lying dead on the street, at a part of Odo Ado called Red Roof Junction.
People in the area claimed that the man had earlier been paraded in parts of the state capital.
Sources claimed that the deceased was sighted by an unidentified elderly woman, who raised the alarm which prompted youths in the area to arrest him.
They stripped him naked and while beating him, the sources added, the victim sought help by mentioning some clergymen he claimed to know in the town.
The mob had followed him to a white garment church at the Odo Ado Area, but when they couldn’t see the cleric the victim had named, he allegedly took to his heels. But the mob pursued and caught up with him at the Red Roof Junction.
The mob pulled down the roof of the church and destroyed its property, including all they found at an adjoining room which the neighbours described as “the church office.”
None of the witnesses in the neighbourhood could identify the victim. All of them kept directing newsmen to Matthew Street, saying “that’s where the incident started.”
The witnesses at the Red Roof had dispersed when newsmen arrived at the area, refusing to speak. Some claimed they could be victims of police raid if the security agents arrived to investigate the incident.
All the witnesses could give as a reason for the killing was “they said he as gathering feaces into a bag at Matthew area, and they said it was an elderly woman that spotted him and raised the alarm.”
The witnesses further claimed that the man was lynched on the suspicion that he was a ritualist.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State police command, Mr. Caleb Ikechukwu, could not be reached for his comments on the incident as his telephone line was off.
The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Odo Ado said he was not in the office and had not been briefed about the incident, saying “we are currently busy where the vice president is having an event.”