The Abuja Police Command of the Nigeria Police Force has yet to arrest the prime suspect fingered in the gruesome murder of a vigilante operative, Ahmad Usman, 48 hours after.
Usman, a 30-year-old resident of the Federal Capital Territory, was stoned to death and burnt by a mob over an alleged blasphemous comment against the Prophet Muhammed and Allah, in the Lugbe area of the country’s capital city.
The suspect whose name is unknown, according to the Police, is a Muslim cleric who also resides in Lugbe.
Hours after the incident, the FCT Police said it was investigating the killing which occurred on Saturday.
“We understand that one Ahmad Usman a 30-year-old member of the local vigilante around Tippa Garage at Federal Housing Estate in Lugbe area of the Federal Capital Territory got into an argument with a cleric (Mallam) whose name is yet unknown from the same area.
“The heated argument degenerated into violence that led to the murder and setting ablaze of Ahmad Usman by the enraged mob mobilised by the cleric numbering about two hundred,” the Police said in a statement acquired by PUNCH Metro.
Our correspondent, however, gathered that members of the vigilance group guarding the Timber-shed market at the Federal Housing Estate in Lugbe, Abuja had arrested some wanderers around the market in the early hours of Saturday.
The residents were said to have begged the vigilante cadets to let them off in the name of Prophet Muhammed and Allah, however, Usman had disagreed and allegedly made comments said to be blasphemous, leading to the suspects pouncing on him and calling on over a hundred others to stone him to death before he was set ablaze.
Traders within the market who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity also affirmed that the vigilante cadet was beaten and stoned before he was set ablaze.
Since the incident, citizens across the country, many of whom took to social media, have shown their discomfort concerning the gruesome killing.
Meanwhile, a reliable source within the FCT Police Command, on Sunday, confirmed to our correspondent that the police were yet to arrest the identified Muslim cleric or others among the mob that were fingered in the gruesome killing.
Copyright PUNCH.
