Two suspected goat thieves beaten to death

Two suspected thieves were on Thursday, lynched by a mob at “Brotherman” near Kpaguri, a suburb of the Wa municipality in the Upper West Region for allegedly stealing an unspecified number of goats.

The two, Ibrahim Tahiru and the other only named as Pascal, who were earlier on rescued by the police after sustaining various degrees of wounds, died a few hours after being rushed to the regional hospital.

Briefing The Ghanaian Times yesterday, an eyewitness, said the two who are residents of Mangu were sighted by a driver of a pick-up coming out of a house on the Nakore road near the St. Francis Xavier Seminary Senior High School in the municipality carrying the goats on a motor cycle.

He said the driver of the pick-up upon seeing them suspected they were thieves, and, therefore, tried to stop them, but the two, sensing danger sped off on their motorcycle.

The eyewitness said following this the driver whose identity was not given raised the alarm and they started to give them a hot chase on the main road leading to the “Brotherman” area.

He said upon reaching “Brother-man” the driver managed to hit the motorbike on which they were escaping, resulting in the fall of the two and as a result, the mob which at the time was massing up managed to grab both of them.

The eyewitness said the mob allegedly set the motorcycle on which they were riding ablaze and pounced on them using stones, pestles and cutlasses to inflict several injuries on them.

According to the eyewitness, the mob was just about setting the two ablaze when the police appeared at the scene.

Confirming the incident, the regional staff officer of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Edward Nyamekye, said at about 12 p.m. on Thursday the regional police patrol team had information that some suspected thieves were about to be lynched.

He said the police quickly rushed to the scene and realized that the thieves had been beaten to pulp, with blood oozing from their mouths, nostrils and body.

ASP Nyamekye said the two were quickly rescued and sent to the regional hospital where they both passed on.

He said no one has been arrested yet in connection with the mob action but the police would continue with their investigations to ensure that persons involved in mob attack were brought to book.

Mr. Nyamekye said it was unfortunate that in spite of the numerous public educations, people still continue to engage in this dastardly act of instant justice.

Stressing that mob attack was a crime under the criminal code of the country, therefore persons found to have been involved in the incident would be dealt with accordingly.

He, therefore, appealed to the public to exercise restraint and not to take the laws into their hands.