Four children aged between 9 and 15 were nearly lynched over the weekend by angry residents of two localities in Tamale for stealing a cock and a sheep. The issue of children gaining notoriety in stealing rekindled concerns about irresponsible parenthood within the Tamale Metropolis, after these youngsters were subjected to severe beatings by their captors. In the first instance, 12-year-old Jabaru Abdul Rauf and 11-year-old Tahiru Rashid were arrested by residents of Kalpohin Estates after stealing a white cock. According to some eyewitnesses, the two were seen loitering around the area and were monitored by someone within the vicinity. The young miscreants patiently trailed the cock, pounced on it and immediately stuffed it in a polythene bag they were holding for their operations and tried deserting the scene. The owner, who all this while was monitoring their activities, immediately arrived at the scene and questioned them, but the two started shivering. Onlookers immediately started beating up the poor boys mercilessly, regardless of their pleas for mercy. It took the timely intervention of some good Samaritans to rescue the young thieves from being lynched by the angry residents who accused them of stealing other items. They were whisked away and warned to desist from stealing from the area or risk losing their lives. In the other incident, two youngsters were also arrested for stealing a sheep at Wurishie, another suburb of the Tamale metropolis. The alleged thieves, Mohammed Mahe, 15, and Fuseini Mohammed, 9, both from Kumbungu in the Tolon-Kumbungu District, in the early hours of Friday, stole the sheep belonging to a resident in Wurishe-Temale Polytechnic, Tamale. Their arrest incurred the fury of youth of the area who beat and nearly lynched them, but for the intervention of the chief of the area, Wurishe-naa Shaibu. The news of the arrest, which spread like wild fire in the neighborhood, brought a lot of tension at the scene as neighbours came out with sticks and other dangerous weapons to maim the alleged thieves. Wurishe-naa Shaibu had a hectic time calming nerves before he could rescue the boys from the mob, who complained of loss of property including animals and motorbikes and therefore accused the boys of having a hand in the disappearance of their goods. Even with the intervention of the chief, the mob indicated that they would cut the hands or fingers of the boys to serve as a deterrent to others, vowing that they would kill any criminal who dared steal in the area in future. The two, after stealing the animal, carried it to the Kumbungu lorry station in Tamale and put it in an awaiting lorry to Kumbungu, but were grabbed when they decided to go back for another sheep. The young thieves sustained various degrees of injury as a result of the beatings they received at the hands of the mob. They reportedly confessed, to the utter dismay of the crowd, of their involvement in a number of thefts in the area and other suburbs of Tamale. Mohammed Mahe, the leader, admitted that they had been in the business for a long time, adding that they stole about four to five animals on each operation from Tamale. The stolen animals were handed over to their boss, whom they failed to name, who in turn sold them to butchers in Kumbungu and other communities in the area. As at press time, the alleged thieves were being taken to Kumbungu to identify four other accomplices believed to be the benefactors of the teenage boys, before the matter could be reported to the police.