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He is well-to-do, a top Senior Manager at the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

He can afford to buy any type of telephone handset or laptop for any of his four sons. But this morning when Onyema Biringa (shown in photo), who is based in Port Harcourt, capital of Rivers State in South-South Nigeria, woke up, it was to prepare for the burial of his first son, Chiadikobi, who was lynched yesterday by a mob for allegedly stealing handsets and laptops.

The bereaved father, who alongside his family s still reeling from shock, is seeking divine intervention over the cruel fate that has befallen his beloved son. “I have handed over the murderers to God,” he told a relative last night.

News Express reports that Chiadikobi and two other students of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) believed to be his friends were forcibly seized by a mob at Allu, an off campus suburb where they lived, paraded naked, mercilessly beaten to death despite passionate pleas, had their necks bedecked with used tyres preparatory to being set ablaze.

The only one to be identified, Chiadikobi’s body has been taken to his hometown, Umungwa, Obowo, in neighbouring Imo State, for burial today.

Outrage has greeted his murder and that of the other victims of the jungle justice. Writing on Facebook, one of his relatives, Okonkwo Queen, said: My eyes are filled with tears. My dear brother may your soul rest in peace.”

*EDITOR’S NOTE: We have refrained from publishing the photos of the victims as we have a policy of not publishing dead bodies and nude photographs.

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