Two Lynched On Suspicion Of Being Serial Killers

Two people, including a popular taxi driver in Tarkwa, who were mistaken for serial killers were last Tuesday lynched by a mob at Essuaso, a farming community near Tarkwa.

The miscreants did not end there but went ahead to set the bodies of the deceased on fire.

While the taxi driver was identified only as Kobby Taller, the other victim is yet to be identified.

Their ‘crime’ was that the First Aid box in the taxi in which they were to travelling contained a pair scissors, a small bottle of methylated spirit, gauze swab, a pair of gloves and plaster.

The mob also inflicted machete wounds on the head of a woman, identified as Agnes Quaicoo, who was in the vehicle.

She is in critical condition at the Tarkwa Government Hospital.

According to the police, when some people saw those items in the First Aid box in the taxi, information went round the farming community that the occupants of the taxi could be serial killers.

They said within a short time a mob had gathered and they ordered the taxi driver and the two occupants out of the vehicle and marched them to the chief’s palace.

Speaking to graphic.com.gh, the Tarkwa Municipal Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Ernest Maayeb, said when the police were informed about the arrest of the occupants of the taxi by the community members, police personnel were dispatched to the chief’s palace to take the suspects to the police station in Tarkwa.

Mr Maayeb said when the police personnel got to the scene, the atmosphere was tense. What was more, the mob far outnumbered the police sent to the scene.

“We sent a reinforcement to the scene and my men started negotiating a safe passage for the two passengers and the taxi driver but the people refused. They even refused to listen to the chief of the town,” he said.

He said the mob told the police that they wanted instant justice because the suspects were killers.

That, according to Chief Supt Maayeb, resulted in a fierce confrontation between the mob and the police.

He said the police managed to push the suspects into a room, but the mob used cement blocks to force the door open, after which the rampaging mob then attacked the police with stones and clubs and in the process butchered the two victims.

He said the police endured the attack and managed to protect the woman, but not before she had been slashed deeply on the head.

Chief Supt Maayeb said currently three people had been arrested.

Meanwhile, all able-bodied men and women have fled Essuaso for fear of being arrested.