Posted by The Port Harcourt Telegraph on
Six persons identified as armed robbers were caught and set ablaze at Rumuosi /Rumuekini junction along the busy University of Port Harcourt road last Tuesday.
Six persons identified as armed robbers were caught and set ablaze at Rumuosi /Rumuekini junction along the busy University of Port Harcourt road last Tuesday.
Our sources said the late armed bandits were notorious during their lifetime and were known to have been terrorizing communities, particularly those in Obio/Akpor local government area.
They were allegedly rounded up in the house of one of their member from Edo state who resided in Rumuosi while planning to carry out an operation.
The team, from what we gathered, was made up of two students of the UNIPORT, two youths from Romuosi and the Edo-born including one other whose identity remained vague claimed that a certain personality in Rumuosi (name withheld) sold his landed property and kept its proceeds which resulted to about N2 million in his house.
It was suspected that information about the deal may have leaked to the robbers who assembled in a member's resident, preparatory to a dusk operation.
But before the red hour arrived for them to strike, vigilant villagers carried the battled to their den and made the big catch.
Rumours of the robber's capture got to the police who arrived to take them away for conventional justice, but were refused such opportunity by the villagers.
"We have a standing order to do away with any criminal caught here, irrespective of whose ox is gored", a source among the villagers was quoted as saying.
One of the robbers was a young lad who, they said, specialized in snatching handsets and was, in fact, caught in the act that afternoon after removing one from a victim who came to the area to fix a defect on his vehicle.
All the six robbers were burnt to ashes with petrol and used motor tyres.
Expectedly, their death was celebrated by residents and travelers who recalled the hard times robbers usually subjected them to all over the places.