By Abiodun Bolujoko and Ahmed Ajikobi
A middle age man, whose name could not be ascertain, escaped death by
the whiskers when he was lynched by an angry mob in Offa Garage area,
Ilorin, Kwara State, on Tuesday.
The man, was said to have been beaten to a pulp by the mob for
physically assaulting a taxi driver, Mallam Yunusa Alabi.
Pilot Crime gathered that the man boarded a taxi belonging to Alabi
and pleaded with the driver that he didn’t have money to pay as fare.
It was further gathered that when the passenger alighted from the cab,
he went straight for the driver and punched him on the face before
using a wheel spanner to hit his head severally.
An eyewitness, who simply identified himself as Lekan, said โPassersby
and people within the vicinity were shocked to see the passenger
beating the driver whose head had broken and was bringing out blood.
โWe rushed to the scene to rescue the driver from his assailant. When
the passenger was asked what the bone of contention was and could not
give satisfactory explanation, people descended on him.
โAt a point he pretended to have fainted and when he heard that the
mob wanted to mete out jungle justice on him, he quickly got up,โ he
further said.
Narrating his ordeal, Alabi said he was surprised when the man he
assisted launched an unprovoked attack on him.
โHe punched me and also went to the car booth to take wheel spanner
with which he used to hit my head. Blood gushed out of my head. My cry
for help attracted people around.โ
However, the passenger told our reporter that it was the driver that
first attacked him.
โThe taxi driver told me to enter the cab and suddenly he started
hitting me with wheel spanner,โ he claimed.
Efforts to get his name proved abortive as he fainted during
interrogation by this medium.
When contacted on the matter, the state Police Spokesperson, DSP Ajayi
Okasanmi said he was unaware of the case.
