Agonising deaths of four students who were burned alive is posted online
When best friends Ugonna Obuzor, Chiadika Biringa, Lloyd Toku, and Tekena Elkanah left their Nigerian university campus for a nearby village to collect a debt, none could have known they were walking towards a death of unutterable brutality.
They were chased through the streets by stick and stone-wielding vigilantes, stripped naked and beaten until they were almost unconscious.
They were dragged through mud, had concrete slabs dropped on their heads and car tyres filled with petrol wrapped around their necks. Then somebody lit a match.
This horrific orgy of violence and torture was also be filmed on a mobile phone and later uploaded to YouTube for the world to see.
It is known as 'necklacing', the appalling method of killing which involves putting a petrol-filled tyre around a victim's neck and setting it ablaze, and this latest incident has sent shockwaves throughout Nigeria and the wider world.
The UK Daily Mail says it is a horrifying example of what can happen when respect for the law drains away and communities turn to mob justice to summarily execute suspected criminals.
Campaigners say police are largely to blame and are feared more than organised criminals in parts of Nigeria where faith in the judicial system has all but evaporated.
Obuzor, Biringa, Toku, and Elkanah were roommates at the University of Port Harcourt, in Chuba, Nigeria.
According to Biringa's mother, Chinewe, Obuzor had asked his friends to accompany him to the nearby village of Aluu because somebody there owed him money.
What exactly happened when they arrived is unclear, but it has been claimed that Obuzor's debtor spread the word that the men were there to steal laptops and mobile phones and they were soon set upon.
'I want the world to know how our security failed us.
"I want the world to know that my son and his three friends are innocent of what they said they did,' Mrs Biringa told CNN.
According to reports, the village had been shaken by a series of recent armed robberies and villagers were on high alert.
But Mrs Biringa said the three friends were entirely innocent and dreamed of launching a music career. They had already recorded a song together called, Aint No Love in the City.
Her husband, Steven, an oil executive at Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), watched the video because he wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen his son's killing with his own eyes.
'Even your worst enemy should not be treated in such form,' he said.
In the wake of the killing, students at University of Port Harcourt (Uniport) rioted, burning cars, shops and houses.
Anti-riot police were called in and the campus was shut down indefinitely.
Spurred into action by the uproar surrounding the incident, Nigerian police have since arrested at least 19 people from the village of Aluu, including its chief.
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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239201/Necklace-lynchings-shocked-Africa-Agonising-deaths-students-mistaken-thieves-burned-alive-posted-online.html#ixzz2DWANHjtL
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Necklacing murder of students shocks world
Agonising deaths of four students who were burned alive is posted online
When best friends Ugonna Obuzor, Chiadika Biringa, Lloyd Toku, and Tekena Elkanah left their Nigerian university campus for a nearby village to collect a debt, none could have known they were walking towards a death of unutterable brutality.
They were chased through the streets by stick and stone-wielding vigilantes, stripped naked and beaten until they were almost unconscious.
They were dragged through mud, had concrete slabs dropped on their heads and car tyres filled with petrol wrapped around their necks. Then somebody lit a match.
This horrific orgy of violence and torture was also be filmed on a mobile phone and later uploaded to YouTube for the world to see.
It is known as 'necklacing', the appalling method of killing which involves putting a petrol-filled tyre around a victim's neck and setting it ablaze, and this latest incident has sent shockwaves throughout Nigeria and the wider world.
The UK Daily Mail says it is a horrifying example of what can happen when respect for the law drains away and communities turn to mob justice to summarily execute suspected criminals.
Campaigners say police are largely to blame and are feared more than organised criminals in parts of Nigeria where faith in the judicial system has all but evaporated.
Obuzor, Biringa, Toku, and Elkanah were roommates at the University of Port Harcourt, in Chuba, Nigeria.
According to Biringa's mother, Chinewe, Obuzor had asked his friends to accompany him to the nearby village of Aluu because somebody there owed him money.
What exactly happened when they arrived is unclear, but it has been claimed that Obuzor's debtor spread the word that the men were there to steal laptops and mobile phones and they were soon set upon.
'I want the world to know how our security failed us.
"I want the world to know that my son and his three friends are innocent of what they said they did,' Mrs Biringa told CNN.
According to reports, the village had been shaken by a series of recent armed robberies and villagers were on high alert.
But Mrs Biringa said the three friends were entirely innocent and dreamed of launching a music career. They had already recorded a song together called, Aint No Love in the City.
Her husband, Steven, an oil executive at Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), watched the video because he wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen his son's killing with his own eyes.
'Even your worst enemy should not be treated in such form,' he said.
In the wake of the killing, students at University of Port Harcourt (Uniport) rioted, burning cars, shops and houses.
Anti-riot police were called in and the campus was shut down indefinitely.
Spurred into action by the uproar surrounding the incident, Nigerian police have since arrested at least 19 people from the village of Aluu, including its chief.
.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239201/Necklace-lynchings-shocked-Africa-Agonising-deaths-students-mistaken-thieves-burned-alive-posted-online.html#ixzz2DWANHjtL
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