By Desire Emmanuel
The timely arrival of men of the Enugu State Police Command saved two thieves from being lynched to death inside the premises of a bank after they were found to have swapped the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card of a woman.
The two thieves, whose names were given as Onyeka Timothy (aged 34) and Philip Chima Nwankwo (aged 32), were rescued from a mob at the bank located at Okpara Avenue in the state capital by operatives attached to the Central Police Station (CPS) on May 11 around 10:50 a.m.
It was gathered on Thursday that the two thieves met the woman at the ATM point in the bank premises and while pretending to assist her in carrying out a transaction, they swapped her card.
However, the woman saw what they did to her card, raised an alarm which attracted a mob that descended on the duo and beat them blue black.
As the serious beating was on and thinking that they might be lynched to death inside the bank’s premises, a distress call was made to the police operatives who arrived the scene, rescued them from death, arrested them and took the thieves to their station.
At the point of their arrest, a tricycle which brought them to the bank as well as the woman’s swapped card and the card used for the swapping were said to have been recovered from them.
Also during their interrogation, they reportedly confessed to the crime while they had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) for further investigation after which they will be charged to court.
