Crisis broke out at the Aga area of Ikorodu after stray bullet from policemen allegedly hit three people.
The incident occurred Monday morning at Oni-Ogunsanya Street, near the community mosque.
Police were said to have fired shots to disperse a crowd that gathered to lynch a suspected member of murderous gang, Badoo.
The suspect, identified as Vincent Onama was caught around 2a.m by members of the local vigilante group, Onyabo, while allegedly trying to dispossess/kill a motorcyclist.
It was gathered that the vigilante members after interrogating Onama, locked him inside a room till dawn for proper identification.
But when they went to the room he was kept, the suspect had allegedly applied black oil on his body and was attempting to escape through the window, tactics usually used by the Badoo gang.
At that point, the vigilantes were said to have been convinced he was a Badoo member and notified residents of the community, who trooped to the location to see the suspect.
It was gathered that Onama had lived in the neighborhood but relocated to Ajah, from where he came to the area and was caught at the wee hour.
A resident, Tunde, who spoke with The Nation said the suspect mounted a roadblock to either collect his victim’s motorcycle or kill him.
He said: “It was the anger the police provoked that led to him being killed. Initially, the people were questioning him. It was when the policemen fired shot and hit three people that the mob brought him out, lynched him and burnt him to death. One person was hit on the head and he was rushed to the hospital. I can’t say if he died or not. Another person was hit on the hand. I don’t know where the bullet touched the fourth victim.”
Ikorodu Ambassadors’ Coordinator, Rasheed Fatuga said: “When he was caught by some members of Onyabo, he was locked in an apartment for further interrogation. To their greatest amazement, the culprit had made an attempt to escape from the room by robbing his body with black oil as he was also forcing the burglary on the window out.
“With the foregoing, it was affirmed that he was one of the dreaded group. They sought after the target, they go about without weapon on them only to use any available weapon found in the homes of their supposed victims to brutally murder them. They usually rob oil on their body to grant them escape root.
“The angry crowd refused to release the culprit to the security operatives because of the antecedent of the security operatives of releasing such culprit, who will return on vengeful mission of deadly massacre.
“While the security operatives were trying to gain entrance into the scene, there were sporadic shooting which got three victims wounded and one had quickly been rushed to hospital. This triggered the angry crowd to forcefully bring the suspect out and burnt him to death.
“We call on the Ayangburen of Ikorodu, Oba Kabir Adewale Shotobi and other royal fathers to rise up and save the division from its current ugly and bad name.”
The Nation gathered that Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni visited the scene and addressed the crowd. He sued for peace and appealed to the people to avoid mob justice, assuring them that he was personally leading investigations on the insecurity in Ikorodu.
Owoseni, the residents said, promised that members of Badoo gang and their sponsors would be apprehended, urging them to report any pliant cop to him via SMS.
