The lucky intervention of officers of the Ondo State Police Command was all that saved a 25-year-old mentally ill patient from being burnt alive on suspicion of attempting to kidnap some primary school pupils in Ondo town on Tuesday, May 27, 2015.
The youths of Oka area of the town were about roasting the man alive, when policemen arrived the scene.
According to the Vanguard, the suspect, one Peter Oyeyemi, was noticed lurking around the school when the youths saw him and began to monitor him.
He was accused of trying to lure some pupils away and challenged by the youths, who searched him.
The search yielded several items discovered in his bags including passport-sized photographs of different persons, a picture of a teenage girl, a mobile phone handset, cash, female clothing and a copy of the Bible and the Quran.
The youths immediately raised an alarm that he was a kidnapper and more youths joined the scene. They stripped the man naked and were about to set him ablaze when some elders in the area informed the police who quckly arrived the scene and whisked him away.
The Police command’s spokesman, Wole Ogodo,who confirmed the incident, however stated that the suspect was a psychiatric patient who had escaped from a mental home in the state capital.
According to him, police detectives discovered during interrogation that he was not mentally balanced.
Mr. Ogodo said his parents had been contacted and that they confirmed that he escaped from the psychiatric hospital in Akure, where he was meant to be receiving treatment.
He said: “The suspect was mistaken for a kidnapper. He is not. He is a psychiatric patient and his parents have gone to the station to show the police the documents of his health status.”
He urged the people of the state not to take laws into their hands, advising that suspected criminals should be reported to the police.
He noted that but for the timely intervention of policemen the suspect would have been roasted alive on an allegation that was not proven , warning that jungle justice would not be tolerated in the state.
