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The story of a seven year old boy reportedly beaten and burnt to death by a mob in Lagos has been trending since Wednesday, sparking intense anger across the country.
According to reports, the boy’s alleged crime is that he stole garri. The photos of the “supposed’’ boy and the incident had gone viral on social media.
Many Nigerians are still condemning the barbaric act, with comments questioning why people should be so wicked, evil and inhuman to lynch ‘a 7-year-old boy who stole garri because he was hungry’.
While reports say it happened in Lagos, none has been able to substantiate it.
Where, how, when, did the incident take place. No report has answered those questions.
However, Mr. Abayomi Shogunle, Police Head of Complaint Response Unit (CRU), on his twitter handle, doubts the report.
He tweeted:
“Who knows the exact location photo was taken’’?- Boy alleged of stealing in Lagos’’ on 11.15.2016 @PoliceNG
“Report from Lagos Commissioner of @PoliceNG indicates that NO BOY WAS MOBBED/BURNT in Badagry or any part of the state as circulated
While majority of the social media comments about the incident are that of anger at the “wickedness” of the perpetrators, some wonder if Nigerians are actually that wicked.
A comment by Oluwajayfilms, reacting to the Instagram report by Instablog9ja, indicated that the victim was not seven but 23. It tried to explain what actually happened.
shuga_8@lhorphebells on Instagram wrote: “I have not felt an iota of pity since this story started flying around you know why? (1) who saw his birth certificate (2) the way young boys form tout in lagos these days makes me marvel at what Nigeria has turned to. I boarded a bus from Egbeda just 2 days ago $ four young boys joined the bus along the road, those boys obviously are not up to 16 years old, they were supposed to pay 200 but gave the driver 100 and threatened to beat him up if he doesn’t stop at their bus stop, nobody interfered because no one wants to get beaten by these kids. When they alighted, the driver said “woman go de open yansh de born bastard” $ that’s the truth, go to Mushin, agege, Orile iganmu, oshodi etc $ see for your self what bad parenting has caused Nigeria . Again i’ll say never give birth to a child you can’t raise properly if not things like this won’t stop happening, many of them are truly a menace to our society”
The Police has gotten on top of the case. A police statement obtained by Newspeakonline reads:
The centre of the situation is the “evil” jungle justice that is prevalent in our society.
The case of Aluu 4 is still fresh in our minds. Many Nigerians have been killed for crimes they know nothing about, although cases of robbers, ritual killers and kidnappers caught in the act being lynched are verifiable.
READ ALSO: Aluu 4: Three years gone without justice