Fuel thief escapes lynching in Port Harcourt

isaac dachen

January 6, 2016 2:00 PM

A fuel thief in Port Harcourt was almost burnt to death by an angry mob.

The lucky Kenneth Eze

But for divine intervention, a man accused of stealing 50 litres of fuel would have been lynched to death by an angry mob is Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, reports the Punch Newspaper.

The suspect, Kenneth Eze, according to eyewitnesses, was spotted by a teenager stealing the fuel from the Udi taxi park where a black marketer usually sold the product to commercial drivers and had allegedly threatened to kill a boy who caught him in the act.

It was gathered that the boy who saw him from afar, had walked up to Eze to challenge him and return the fuel to the owner but he told the boy to keep shut or he would strangle him to death, claiming to be a member of a deadly cult group and that his members would come for the boy if anything happens to him.

But the 17-year-old boy was not frightened by Eze's threats and raised an alarm which attracted a crowd. The suspect was nabbed as he tried to escape and given the beating of his life and would have been burnt to death before he was rescued by the police.

The suspect who said he is a driver, allegedly confessed to stealing the fuel but added that it was his first time to be involved in such an act.

“I am a driver and I have never stolen before. I wanted to take the keg of fuel away, but had to hide by the side of a car there when I saw the police coming. It was temptation and this is my first time of involving in this. If I lie, may I never see tomorrow,” he swore.

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