Three armed hoodlums were, early yesterday morning, rescued by a police patrol team in Aba, Abia State, as a crowd of youths tried to lynch them to death.
The bandits were allegedly caught while trying to rob residents of Okigwe Road and adjoining streets in Aba North Council Area and were being beaten with clubs and machetes when a joint team of police and military men on patrol arrived at the scene.
They were said to have quickly dispersed the youths who had mobilised used vehicle tyres and petrol to get the bandits burnt.
Sources said the security team acted quickly to carry the seriously wounded hoodlums into their patrol vehicle and drove away.
One of those at the scene told our correspondent that members of a local vigilante group had alerted residents of the area of the presence of the night marauders, and the youths decided to the mob and burn them to death after they were apprehended.
Some residents suspected that the bandits may be set free if handed over to the police, so the people who they claimed,
“have been suffering in the hands of night robbers, wanted to discharge justice on them on the spot.”
