80-yr-old woman who 'transformed from bird to human' escaped lynching by irate mob

The victim

An elderly woman narrowly escaped lynching on Wednesday after she allegedly transformed from a bird to a human being in the full glare of spectators.

An eyewitness who gave his name as Mr Chike said he was sitting in front of a compound with his girlfriend when they saw three black birds flying.

He said it seemed as if the birds were involved in a fight and as he was watching, suddenly, one of the birds fell into a moving van belonging to the Eko Electricity Distribution Company while the other two flew away.

He said, “The bird suddenly turned to an old woman of about 80. People were shocked as they saw the woman rolling on the road and blood gushing out from her forehead.

A timely intervention by the  the Traditional ruler of Layeni Community, Baale Rafiu Olayeni, prevented the irate crowd from lynching the old woman.

Subsequently, The Divisional Police Officer of Layeni Police Division, CSP Chijioke Ndu who got a phone call concerning the incident, drafted anti- robbery policemen to the scene, rescued the woman and took her to the station.

Hundreds of spectators were said to have followed them to the station.

The traditional leader said people told him the woman fell down as a bird but that he did not believe them. So he had to rescue the old woman before the mob lynched her as they claimed she was a witch. 

At the station, however, the police found it difficult to control the mammoth crowd that had come to see the alleged witch.

It was learnt that the DPO had to call for reinforcement from Ajegunle and Amukoko divisions before he could handle the crowd as some people were bent on lynching the woman.

The policemen were said to have fired tear gas at the crowd and dispersed them from the station and the woman was subsequently transferred to the Area B Command in Apapa for further investigation.

Culled from PUNCH