A mob of angry youths in Kanshio, a suburb of Makurdi town in Benue State, nearly lynched a new generation church pastor and his alleged usher over an alleged genital theft.
The incident was sparked by a young man who claimed that his manhood had been snatched by a man who turned out to be an usher in the pastor’s church.
An eyewitness told Vanguard Newspapers that the young man raised a loud cry that attracted many people who quickly surrounded the alleged genital thief and started beating him mercilessly.
The usher, fearing for his life, reportedly confessed to his attackers that he was acting on the orders of his pastor, who he said had instructed him to steal someone’s genitals and bring them to him.
The mob then followed the usher to the pastor’s house, where they dragged him out and gave him a severe beating as well.
The pastor and the usher were both stripped naked and would have been killed if not for the timely intervention of the police, who rescued them and took them to the ‘B Division’ police station.
“At the police station, it was discovered that the whole allegation was baseless and no one had lost his genitals at all.
“The pastor and the usher were innocent victims of a false alarm and a mob mentality who were brutally assaulted for nothing,” an eyewitness told Vanguard.
The police spokesperson in the state, SP Catherine Anene, confirmed the incident and condemned it as “inhuman and pathetic”.
She said that the young man who had raised the alarm had no evidence of any genital theft and that such allegations had never been proven in the past.
She said that the police were investigating the matter and that no arrests had been made yet.
