An angry mob, on Sunday, set five kidnap suspects ablaze along the Afuze-Uokha road in Owan West local government area of Edo state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the suspects attacked and abducted some travellers along the road and took them into a nearby forest.
However, luck reportedly ran out of the kidnappers, as they were arrested by vigilantes who brought them out of the forest.
The youths, on sighting the suspects, seized them from the vigilantes and burnt them to death.
The kidnap suspects were said to have taken the travellers into the bush, without knowing that the vigilantes, who had gotten wind of the incident, were on their trail.
“The kidnappers would have been contacting the families of the abducted travellers to ask for ransom if not for the bravery of the vigilantes, while residents, who were fed up with the criminal activities of these kidnappers, set them on fire and left them to get burnt to death,” a source told the publication.
Bello Kontongs, the spokesman of the Edo police command, who confirmed the incident, said an investigation is ongoing.
“After the kidnap, the vigilantes went in search of the criminals who they apprehended in the bush,” Kontongs said.
“As they were coming out in Uokha community, on their way to the police station, angry youths in Uokha and adjoining towns took away the kidnap suspects from the vigilantes.
“All efforts to get the suspects to the police proved abortive as they were burnt to death.
