Following the release of a video on the internet of a gang sodomizing two women who allegedly stole pepper, an elected official and the police issue conflicting reports about the incident.

Photo: Two members of a market vigilantee group sodomize the helpless woman accused of stealing pepper
 

 

Following the release of a video on the internet of a gang sodomizing two women, an elected official and the police are issuing conflicting reports about the incident.

Video footage shows a faceless gang attacking two women, unidentified, stripping them naked, and thrusting ground pepper and hard sticks into the genitals of one of them and covering her in a heavy liquid.  A second victim, a teenage girl, was tortured as well.   

Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan, Chairman of Ejigbo government issued a press release today saying the sodomizing incident took place in the central market in Iyana Ejigbo in February 2013.  

According to Mr. Bamigbetan and his team, a practice of pepper sellers is to leave their goods on their stalls.  The sellers reported two women allegedly stealing the pepper, a woman and her step-daughter, to vigilantes they hired to secure the market.  After the torture by vigilantes, both females confessed to stealing the pepper and were let go.  Members of the vigilante group feared news of the torture would spread and those who carried it out would be penalized and the gang was disbanded.  The woman was identified as the wife of the palm wine tapper. The market since the incident has been converted to shops and rented out.

Mr. Bamigbetan released information collected by his team but people are questioning whether they have delayed reports and interfered with the police investigation.

Lagos State Police, however, said they have no clue yet on the location or the gang that carried out the torture. In a phone conversation with a citizen correspondent in Lagos, Mrs. Ngozi Braide, speaking for the Lagos State Police, who contacted the DPO at Ejigbo for an update said "there is no update what-so-ever on the identities of either the victims or the culprits."

Mrs. Braide asked that any member of the public with possession of information regarding the identity of the gang or victims, place of incidence, and other clues on the incidence should contact the police to order to assist their investigation.  

"We only saw the video on the internet and no can tell exactly where it happened.  You see, the setting does not really look like a marketplace.  It looks like a house."

She added, "it is a really wicked act, and you know, the victims also did not report to the police.  I saw how they were putting sticks in her private parts in the video.  It is very wicked."

The video has been condemned by civil society groups and women advocacy groups across the country.  The Women Arise Initiative, led by Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, said her group is planning a public protest against the brutality and to call attention to other violence against women in Nigeria.

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