A 19-year-old girl, Jemila Ibrahim, has been arrested by the police in Lagos State for setting ablaze the house of her ex-lover, Mohammed Yusuf.

She was arrested alongside her friend, Fatima Mohammed, according to a press statement by the Lagos State Police Command on Monday.

The statement signed by the Lagos Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, was titled, ‘Police arrest lady for setting ex-lover’s house, girlfriend ablaze in Lagos’.

According to the statement, Ibrahim also set ablaze Yusuf’s new girlfriend, Rabi, who later died in the hospital.

The statement read in part,

“The Lagos State Police Command has arrested one Jemila Ibrahim, female, 19-year-old; and her friend, Fatima Mohammed, female, 21-year-old, of Monkey Village, Festac Area, Lagos, for setting ablaze the house of one Mohammed Yusuf, male, of Monkey Village, Lagos State, and his girlfriend, Rabi, female, on 18th November, 2020 at 5.30 pm.

“Mohammed Yusuf, an ex-lover to Jemila, had the hint of the incident and rushed to the house where he met his house on flame but managed to rescue Rabi, his new lover, from the inferno and took her to the hospital where she gave up the ghost on November 21, 2020, at about 12pm.

“Mohammed had alleged his former lover, Jemila Ibrahim, of infidelity before they broke up; he later met and fell in love with his new lover, Rabi, that was caught up in the inferno.

“The duo of Jemila Ibrahim and her friend, Fatimo Mohammed, who accompanied Jemila to commit the heinous crime, have been arrested by the police operatives attached to Satellite Division of the command.”

It quoted the Lagos Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, as condemning the crime.

Odumosu “ordered that the matter be transferred to the State CID, Panti, for discreet investigation”.

The Commissioner of Police also vowed to “go after those who engage in crimes and social vices in order to get Lagos State rid of criminals and criminality”.

The police boss, however, encouraged Lagosians to “shun taking laws into their hands”; noting that “jungle justice will only truncate the administration of justice and such could be counterproductive”.