Mob Burns Suspected Serial Motorcycle Snatcher in Benue

A suspected serial motorcycle thief was on Tuesday morning lynched and set ablaze by a mob opposite the NNPCL mini station near Tito-Gate along Ibrahim Kashim Road in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.

An eyewitness, Andrew Tergu, said the incident occurred around 8:30 a.m. when commuters were boarding commercial motorcycles to work and markets.

According to him, the suspect had engaged a commercial rider and asked to be dropped behind a filling station around Railway Quarters, off Ibrahim Kashim Road. On arrival, the suspect allegedly stabbed the rider multiple times, seized the motorcycle, and attempted to escape.

“The rider bled to death on the spot from deep wounds to his stomach and chest,” Tergu recounted, adding that the alarm raised by a passerby attracted residents who pursued the suspect.

He said the mob eventually caught up with the suspect along the main road, assaulted him with stones, planks, and iron rods before placing a tyre around his neck and setting him on fire.

“This will serve as a warning to others engaging in such acts,” Tergu added.

When reporters visited the scene, operatives of the Benue State Sanitation Agency, alongside police personnel, were seen evacuating the charred remains of the suspect.

Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Catherine Udeme Edet, said the deceased had only recently been released from the Makurdi Correctional Centre after serving time for a similar offence.

“The suspect was caught in the act of attempting to steal a motorcycle around Railway Quarters when youths attacked him. Our men were mobilized to the scene, but before they arrived, he had already been set ablaze,” she stated.

Edet further stressed that the Commissioner of Police condemned the mob action and warned against jungle justice, adding that an investigation has been launched to identify and arrest those involved.