Mob set building ablaze over artisan’s death

• Four held for robbing victim of N3m, burning him in car trunk
A building that served as a bar along the Upper Sokponba road, Benin City, Edo State, has been set ablaze by a mob over the death of an artisan simply identified as Elvis.Elvis had been engaged to do some work at the bar when he was electrocuted.

According to eyewitnesses, Elvis climbed the ceiling to fix something when somebody switched on the generating set and he was electrocuted. He was pronounced dead at the hospital where he was rushed to.A relative of the deceased who pleaded anonymity said the building was set ablaze because youths in the area suspected the death was not ordinary. Edo State police spokesman, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, could not be reached for comments.

Meanwhile, the police in Osun State have arrested four members of a robbery gang that robbed and later killed one Lagos businessman, Victor Akinbile, 48, by setting him ablaze while locked in his car.The Osun Commissioner of Police, Fimihan Adeoye, disclosed this to journalists yesterday while parading the suspects and other criminals at the state police command in Osogbo.

According to Adeoye, some friends of the late Akinbile reported to the police on November 27, at about 10:30p.m., the case of suspicious transfer of N3 million from the account of the deceased. He said they also informed the police that they were unable to reach Akinbile after he had travelled to Ikirun from Lagos on November 26.

The CP added that Akinbile’s friends informed the police that Akinbile had told them he would be passing a night in Ikirun, his hometown and return the next day. The police boss said Akinbile’s friends were worried about the money transferred from his account and their inability to reach him.

Adeoye said the police anti-kidnapping and SARS team where deployed to investigate the matter. He said between November 29 and 30, the team had arrested four suspects as well as recovered the charred remains of Akinbuile’s car and his burnt body.

“The police team discovered that the gang consisted of four men, and that one of them happened to be a security guard who alerted his members that Akinbile was in town. The gang came to the victim’s abode, where he was passing the night, broke into the house and took the N25,000 he was having on him while forcing him to transfer N3 million to the account of one of them.

“The police tracing the account where the money was transferred to, arrested one of the gang members identified as Hamed Rafiu. Rafiu subsequently gave useful information that led to the arrest of other members of his gang.“One of the gang members, Sunday Kayode, was also traced to and arrested in Ondo State where he relocated after their operation while the other two members were arrested in Ikirun, Osun State.

“During investigation and interrogation, the police discovered that the suspects robbed their victim of his cash and transferred N3 million from his account into one of theirs. They then put him in his car and drove him to a secluded place where they set the car alight, while he was locked in the boot,” he said.

Confessing on how Akingbile was killed, Rafiu disclosed that Owolabi, who is a night guard in the house where the deceased slept, called to informed them about the arrival of the deceased from Lagos who was to pass a night in his brother’s house at Ikirun. Rafiu said after Akingbile was driven out from Ikirun to a bush along old Osogbo-Iragbiji road, they set him ablaze.

The CP said the suspects were being prosecuted, adding that he had sent the condolence from the Inspector General of Police to the family of the deceased.

Also, the police boss said the command had arrested two men with a human head and two human palms. He said the men were suspected to have exhumed the human parts from a grave with the intention to use them for money rituals, adding that all the arrested suspects would be charged to court after the police conclude their investigations.