Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
A suspected armed robber was on Monday arrested by an angry mob after his colleague mistakenly shot him while they (the robbers) were trying to escape after an operation at Imgbi Road, Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
Investigations revealed that the four-man robbery gang at about 9:00p.m. pretended as customers and entered a supermarket where they dispossessed customers in the supermarket of their phones and emptied the cash vault of sales made for the day.
However, some young boys, reportedly sitting opposite the supermarket suspected something was amiss on with the way two of the gang members were peeping from inside the supermarket.
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Their suspicion was confirmed when the robbers emerged from the supermarket with guns in their hands and the boys began to throw bottles at them.
Sensing danger as more residents of the area joined the boys to throw bottles at them, the robbers started shooting as they ran towards their parked tricycle popularly called Keke NAPEP.
According to an eyewitness account, one of the robbers mistakenly shot one of his members in the back in an attempt to shoot and scare the mob chasing them.
The tricycle also collided with a stationary truck but before the mob could reach the scene, three of the robbers escaped while the one that had sustained bullet wound was arrested by the mob and beaten thoroughly before he was handed over to a Police patrol team.
Chairman of the Bayelsa State Vigilante Service, Evangelist Parkinson Ekide and the State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Asinim Butswat, confirmed the development.
Meanwhile the state’s Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mukan, has decried the indiscriminate release of suspects in Police custody.
He has, therefore, read a riot act declaring that only the Court of law can order the release of suspects already in Police custody.
CP Mukan who stated this during a consultative meeting with the leadership of the State Vigilante Service and the State Bayelsa Volunteer force over the rising cases of cult killings and armed robbery incidents assured the youths of a new order in the operations of the police command in the state.
“It is disheartening to hear that suspects caught will be on the streets under 24 hours. Such act would not be condoned except they are released by the court. Our approach will be total. During my tenure, the law will be allowed to take its full course”.