One person has been confirmed dead in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital after police and youths clashed over a man, Taheed Musiliu, who was reportedly caught with a human head.
A vigilante group in the Olomi area of Ibadan was said to have caught the man with cellophane bag containing a human head at the weekend.
An irate mob gathered to lynch the suspect when a police patrol team arrived the scene to prevent the mob from killing the suspect.
The police insisted the suspect should be arrested for interrogation, instead of being lynched to death, but the mob protested the police action by preventing the patrol team from taking the suspect away.
A policeman reportedly fired his gun when a stray bullet killed one person.
The police patrol team also fired tear gas canister to disperse the mob after they blocked all the street gates leading to the scene, but the mob were adamant on executing jungle justice on the suspect.
This led to commotion when the mob became confrontational and attacked the police.
Dangerous weapons were said to have been used to attack the police team while their van was vandalized.
Confirming the incident to newsmen on Sunday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said the suspect was eventually taken to police custody for interrogation.
He said, “A suspect was arrested with a human head. The police were called. In the process of taking the suspect to the police station, some hoodlums armed with dangerous weapons attacked the policemen, injured two and destroyed their patrol vehicles and attempted to set them ablaze for not allowing them to carry out extrajudicial killing of the suspect.
“The armed hoodlums barricaded the street gates against the policemen. The injured policemen were rushed to the hospital for medical attention. Twenty-seven of the hoodlums were arrested and the suspect found with human head was eventually rescued.
“The State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, SCIID, of the command has begun investigation into the incident.
“The mob was angered because they claimed that the mobile telephone of the suspect had among its contact persons, some names of Divisional Police Officers of the command.
“On the reports that the suspect has telephone contacts of four DPOs, it is possible and there is no crime in having them. Every member of the public should know that DPOs are public officers and their telephone numbers are always given to the members of the public.
“I am the PPRO for the command and many members of the public have my number. If any of the people that have my contact is arrested for a crime and you find my number on his phone, would you say I am a culprit?
“The police have the right to ensure that jungle justice is not passed on anybody.”
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