By 𝐀𝐥𝐞𝐱 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚
There is hardly anyone who has a mother, sister, daughter, aunty, friend, or even a female enemy who was not infuriated by trending video clips where groups of randy chaps, just like a herd of lion on a strayed antelope, chased after and pounced on young ladies in Ozoro community, Isoko North local government of Delta state, stripping them in broad daylight, mindlessly dehumanising and heartlessly violating their very essence of humanity in a way that portrays us as a society where reckless behaviours and untamed impunity have no consequence.
The fact that those unkind breeds of humans decided to carry out such nauseating act, hiding under a traditional festival called, “Alue-Do” branded as festival for barren women in a society where rape can carry as much as life sentence raises questions on the place of accountability for brazen infractions. While some accounts allude that the festival designed to help the childless conceive basically targets women seen in certain locations in the community for violent assault and unprovoked harassment, others including former governor of Delta State, James Ibori say such narrative was alien to the people’s norms.
Irrespective of which side of the divide, dear reader you may wish to pitch your tent, what is however glaringly established is that we are incubating a battalion of monsters, clearly acting under the influence of some kinds of psycho-active substances, who see women as commodity to be consumed and in any manner without recourse to decency, modesty or consensuality. We are dealing with inherent dangers of crude (cultural) practices often packaged as efforts to preserve our heritage from being totally subsumed or erased by the domineering influence of colonialism.
Provocatively, this is happening the same month when the global community is celebrating the impact, the value, the inalienable contributions of women to a more peaceful and more liveable world through the platform of UN International Women’s Day, making the pain hit differently – to borrow a Gen-Z language. To assume that it is happening same month when the Christian community is marking the Mothers’ Day makes the Ozoro scene a collective assault on women and regrettably casts a blot on the decades of advocacy, appeal, campaign to permanently end violence against (persons) women.
The Ozoro eyesore is not an isolated case. It is one of such plethora of cases where women have been targeted for undue violent attacks that sometimes lead to a tragic end while we look the other way, waiting for the next victim. We have not forgotten in a hurry the 2022 murder of 22-year-old fashion Oluwabamise Ayanwole, on her way from Ajah to Ota in Lagos. According to a police investigation, she had boarded a Bus Rapid Transit, popularly referred to as BRT to take her to a destination but she never arrived alive. The driver identified as Andrew Nice Ominikoron upon picking our dear Oluwabamise at Chevron Bus-Stop immediately found her “attractive” and started nursing a nefarious agenda. At the end, along with his gang members, which by the way included a woman, Mr. Nice that turned out to be an accursed descendant of Lucifer took their turns on citizen Oluwabamise and eventually murdered her, apparently to conceal the wicked deed. They dumped her body on the Carter Bridge, near a community called. Ogogoro.
Also in 2021, another citizen, Iniubong Umoren, this time a fresh graduate who was waiting for deployment for her mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was lured from her home in Uyo with an imaginary job interview by one Uduak Akpan. Unfortunately, she never lived to do the job. Again, she was serially violated, murdered and buried in a shallow grave.
Still fresh in our memory is the killing of a 24-year-old member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Salome Adaidu in Nasarawa State by her boyfriend, Oluwatimileyin Ajayi who also calls himself a gospel singer. Investigations said he killed her over a disagreement and balkanised her body in a way only a butcher would. More shocking, Ajayi said he has no regret over what he did.
These are just few reported cases, not to talk of other routine sexual violations that target vulnerable persons all around us unspoken, unheard and undocumented — pedophilia, incest and whatever names they are called.
It is heartwarming that some persons suspected to have been involved in the Ozoro public display of shame have been taken into custody and will likely have their days in court. Interestingly, the judiciary has landed the gavel on proven infractions, signalling a level of support. Three of the instances cited in this piece have all been dispensed of at the court of first instance, with all offenders slammed with death sentences. That is good news, that is progress.
Whether in Ozoro, Orozo, Koton Karfe, Kaura Namoda or anywhere at all, violent assault against anyone, moreso with intent to violate them is unlawful, appalling, unacceptable and should be condemned. Every human deserves right to dignity and fair treatment irrespective of their natural configuration.
𝑱𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝑩𝒆𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑰 𝑮𝒐…
𝐒𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐀𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐢𝐜𝐞
While it is a worth commending that President Bola Tinubu demonstrates care to Nigerians by ordering distribution of rice especially during festive periods through his Renewed Hope Ambassadors, it must however be stated that there are occasions when the solution is not in the grain rice. Today, many Nigerians spend huge chunk of their income on transportation as a result of high cost of fuel. Some others can’t even access their homes, including Senator Ali Ndume who has not been to his community in the past 16 years as a result of insecurity. Terrorism and banditry have displaced farming communities, dealing a heavy setback on their economy and livelihood. Of what need is bag of rice to families struggling to raise money to secure the release of loved ones in kidnappers’ den? Posterity will not judge the President by how many bags of rice he distributed but actions taken address insecurity, tackle inflation, deepen inclusion, and institutionalise equity.
Enemanna, an Abuja-based journalist writes from alexenemanna3@gmail.com
