In a sad incident that occurred in Anambra, an alleged armed robbery suspect, identified as Chibuike Christian Okafor, was killed after being mobbed along State Secretariat Road in Awka, the state capital. According to reports, the suspect collapsed and died while being taken to the hospital by a police team that rescued him from the angry mob that attacked him.
The spokesperson for the Anambra State Police Command, DSP Ikenga Tochukwu, confirmed the death of the suspect and stated that the police operatives rescued him from the mob and tried to get him to the hospital for treatment, but he died on the way. Tochukwu also dismissed the viral social media footage alleging that the police tortured and labelled an innocent man as an armed robber, stating that the deceased was indeed an armed robbery suspect who was rescued from the mob.
The commissioner of police in the state, Mr Echeng Echeng, has ordered an investigation to unravel the truth behind the viral video footage. Tochukwu described the allegation that the deceased was killed by the men of the “B” Division as “not true, but malicious, a product of fiction, the handiwork of mischief makers and an attempt targeted to tarnish the image of some police personnel serving in the command and to incite the members of the public against the police command”.
Tochukwu explained that on March 28, 2023, the police operatives responded to a distress call along Secretariat Road, Awka, and rescued the suspect from an angry mob. They recovered a locally-made gun with one expanded cartridge allegedly used in robbing his victims. The suspect, popularly known as Jokef, later collapsed and was immediately rushed to the hospital, where he was confirmed dead by a medical doctor.
The Anambra State Police Command has assured the public that investigation is still ongoing, and the police are studying the video footage of the mob action to identify the perpetrators of this act. This incident is a reminder that mob justice is not the solution to criminal activity and that every suspect is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.