Police Rescue Woman from Lynching by Angry Mob

Still smarting from their loss barely two weeks ago when an inferno razed down their houses and shops, the residents of Ipaja yesterday almost lynched a woman over an allegation that she is a witch.

The angry mob had beaten up the middle-aged woman on the absurd suspicion that she turned into a woman after a bird crashed on the ground.

Eyewitness accounts said a bird had flown over the spot and the dropped and the mysteriously turned into a human being.

THISDAY gathered that the mob had reacted badly because it was on the same spot where the petrol tanker crashed and exploded at the Iyana Ipaja area of the state.

Save for the timely intervention of the Gowon Police Station who were alerted by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the woman would have been lynched.

Already, they had battered and brutalised her and had plans underway to burn her when the police arrived the scene and whisked her to safety.

Speaking with THISDAY, a trader who would not want her name mentioned said: “We were going about our business trying to recoup our loss when the unexpected happened.

“A black bird just flew over our heads and then dropped on the ground. Before our eyes, it changed and turned into a woman.

“After we ran away to safety, some mustered courage and went back and when attempts to query the woman failed, they started beating her.

“What everybody was saying was that she was probably the person that caused that fire disaster that almost crippled us.

“So it was with that anger that people descended on her. They almost killed her before the police arrived and took her away.”

Confirming this, the NEMA Spokesperson South-west Zone, Mr. Ibrahim Farinloye, said the residents tried to lynch her because she was reportedly a bird-turned-human.

He said: “NEMA received alert for immediate intervention of security agencies over a woman being attacked on allegation of being a witch at Iyana Ipaja.

“It was at the spot where petrol tanker crashed and exploded. So, the people alleged that a bird flew and dropped and then changed into a human being.

“They started attacking her and when we were informed, we signalled the police in that area and they rescued her alive. Their actions were merely superstitious.”