Suspected Phone Thief Lynched In Calabar

A young man suspected to be a phone thief has been burnt to death in Goldie along Unical and Eastern Highway, Calabar South Local Government area of Cross River State.

According to an eyewitness, Benedict Ita, the incident occurred around 7am today, Thursday, February 22.

Ita said that the suspect who was pursued from Unical axis to Goldie Cemetery was lynched alive by angry mob who were mostly students.

He said that "he was begging for mercy but the mob comprising of mostly students who were determined to use him as a scapegoat over the incessant cases of phone snatching around the area paid deaf ears to his appeal. He was beaten very well before he was burnt alive".

He added that "the boy who many said is a criminal known for phone snatching in the area  was chased from Unical side to Eastern Highway where he jumped to Goldie cemetery but the number was too large for him to escape".

Also speaking, the victim who said he was a 100 level student of Linguistics and Modern Languages, University of Calabar but pleaded not to be named said that the suspected thief was carrying cutlass and threatened to harm him before he was robbed.

He said that “I was going to school around 6:57am for 7am GSS lecture. Since I was almost late, I decided to pass through Eastern high way to cross the broken fence that is leading to Unical Black and White field, when I got there, I saw one young man standing with cutlass; I stopped but he called me and started asking me to release my phone and money to him which i did. He now asked me to run before but before I started running he also took to his heels and  I immediately started shouting thief ooo thief ooo before people now came out and pursued him."

Efforts to get Police reaction was unsuccessful as several calls to the state Police Public Relations Officer, Irene Ugbo and text message were ignored.