An elderly woman escaped lynching on
Wednesday after being accused of being a bird and witch in the Ajegunle
area of Lagos State.
According to residents of Ojo Road,
where the purported transformation took place, the woman was a black
bird before suddenly turning into a human being.
Hundreds of residents were said to have gathered around the woman to lynch her.
An eyewitness, Chike, said he was sitting in front of a compound with his girlfriend when they saw three black birds flying.
He said it seemed as if the birds were
involved in a fight and as he was watching, suddenly, one of the birds
fell into a moving van belonging to the Eko Electricity Distribution
Company while the other two flew away.
He said, “The bird suddenly turned to an
old woman of about 80. People were shocked as they saw the woman
rolling on the road and blood gushing out from her forehead.
“When the crowd was interrogating her,
she said she was a witch and that she came from Ibadan for a meeting in
Lagos but as they were returning home they missed their way and wasted
so much time hovering
in the area till daybreak. The woman claimed she
fell because she was tired of flying.”
It was learnt that as the woman was
about to be lynched, the traditional ruler of Layeni Community, Baale
Rafiu Olayeni, arrived the scene and pleaded with the angry people not
to take laws into their hands.
Olayeni told our correspondent that he
called the Divisional Police Officer of Layeni Police Division, CSP
Chijioke Ndu, and he drafted anti- robbery policemen to the scene,
rescued the woman and took her to the station.
Hundreds of spectators were said to have followed them to the station.
The traditional leader said, “People
told me the woman fell down as a bird but I did not believe them. I had
to rescue the old woman before the mob lynches her as they claimed she
was a witch. Sometimes the reasoning of old people could be compared to
that of a small child because of the effects of old age.”
At the station, however, the police found it difficult to control the mammoth crowd that had come to see the alleged witch.
It was learnt that the DPO had to call
for reinforcement from Ajegunle and Amukoko divisions before he could
handle the crowd as some people were bent on lynching the woman.
The policemen were said to have fired tear gas at the crowd and dispersed them from the station.
It was learnt that the woman was subsequently transferred to the Area B Command in Apapa for further investigation.
It was gathered that this was the seventh lynching the police had prevented this month.
Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, could not be reached for comment.
Source: Punch
