By Obeten Godfrey Follow@obeten_godfrey
The Police in Calabar, the Cross River State capital on Wednesday saved an unnamed man in his mid-thirties from been set ablaze by a mob for alleged phone theft at Akim Qua town.
Residents of Ekpenyong Effiom street woke up at about 6:05 AM on Wednesday to learn that an apartment was raided on Tuesday night with the neighbors unaware of what happened.
They resolved to find out how the raid occurred without the knowledge of the neighbors but were shocked to discover that the owner of the apartment did not spend the night after the incident; this stalled the investigation.
Moments later, a stone throw away from the raided apartment along Mbora street, a crowd of about 50 could be seen beating the suspected petty thieve while a few called for fuel and a match to set him ablaze.
But, the arrival of a team of officers of the Nigeria Police Force around 6:55 AM at the scene led to a halt of the planned jungle justice.
The police then proceeded to question those around and eventually warned the residents not to take laws into their hands when such incidents occur.
The unknown suspected thieve was then released as the Police said they could not establish any case of theft against him with the mob deserting him instantly to lick his wounds.
This comes barely four days after another suspected robber was set ablaze at the Eastern highway street in Calabar south for allegedly robbing a 100 level Linguistics and Communication student of the University of Calabar at about 7:00 AM last week Friday.
He was said to have threatened the student who preferred a shortcut through a broken fence into the varsity over the known and legal entrances, with a cutlass and collected his phone.
The student then alerted residents of the area who chased the suspect and was apprehended while trying to scale a fence into Goldie cemetery.
He was then beaten to a pulp and set ablaze.
The rate of jungle justice in Cross River has increased astronomically over the past 24 months after an increase in the rate of snatching of valuables as well as armed robbery and petty thievery.
The latest of high string robberies was the raiding of the fuelling station at the Federal Neuro Psychiatric hospital along Calabar road on Sunday which left two with gun wounds including one suspected to be a Police officer who had driven in to buy Premium Motor Spirit.
The robbers, numbering two also snatched phones and laptops belonging to staff and patients before jumping into a waiting tricycle that sped southwards to the marine areas.
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