Police Public Relations Officer of the command, Ngozi Braide, said on Tuesday that the suspects were arrested as part of the ongoing investigation into the incident.
She said, “A full investigation has commenced into the incident, I cannot give details about the involvement of the arrested suspects for now.
“We have also invited the community leaders of the area where the incident took place. The police will surely get to the root of the matter.”
Braide, however, declined to give the names of the arrested men.
The lynching of the armed robbery suspects came weeks after a similar lynching of four students of the University of Port Harcourt in controversial circumstances.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the five suspected robbers were caught on Saturday evening and beaten by a mob that consisted of residents and area boys in Mushin.
The suspected robbers were set ablaze and burnt beyond recognition.
When our correspondent visited the area on Tuesday, some residents were reluctant to speak on the incident for fear of being arrested by the police.
But a trader on Vono Street, where the incident took place, told our correspondent that some armed robbers had been terrorising residents of the area in recent time.
The trader, who pleaded anonymity, said, “The people of this area just took their anger on the (suspected) robbers. I don’t really know how they were caught. I think they were said to have broken into a shop.
“I heard somebody raised the alarm and residents quickly reinforced and rounded up the suspects. Nobody really knows the true story because people are afraid of talking about the incident.”
It was learnt that while the suspects were being beaten, residents cheered and took photographs while policemen were not in sight to stop the lynching even though there were some police stations in the area.
Police were said to have arrived the scene after the suspects had been burnt and the crowd had dispersed.
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