By Zogbo S. Mulbah (Internews Intern)
A boy believed to be in his early 20s was reportedly discovered dead in the Jacob Town, Paynesville community on Monday allegedly as a result of electrocution.
According to eye witnesses, the victim and others were seen in the Jacob Town attempting to steal the public electric wire, and while in the process of stealing, it was reported that an angry mob chased them and killed one in the process, while his accomplices absconded the scene.
Reports say, electric wire theft has become the order of the day and the wave of stealing in the areas has caused individual residents to reportedly hire young people to protect their public electric wires to avert any eventual stealing.
In a related development, another resident, Alvin Morris, told this paper during an exclusive interview that the victim was suspected to be a rogue who went in the area to steal electric wires.
“I was awake when I heard the noise but I could not come outside earlier because I didn’t know what was happening,” he noted.
Morris continued that it was later when he and other residents in the community got to know that the deceased was a suspected thief.
He said nowadays whenever they wake up in the morning they would notice that two to three houses’ electric wires had been stolen, “Being that the suspects were about 5 to 6, I could not come outside my house. Notwithstanding, few minutes later, I called the community watch team which arrived but when the suspected criminals noticed their presence they started escaping the scene, while one of them was caught,” he added.
He indicated how the residents unmercifully and allegedly flogged the suspect near death before leaving him, but later gave up the ghost.
Some of the residents said because of their action by taking the law into their own hands instead of handing the suspect to the police, criminal rate will reduce in their area.
