The family of the women sodomized and tortured by members of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) is speaking out about the perpetrators and victims in the Ejigbo Pepper Sodomy case, and now it a clear case of murder.
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The family of the women sodomized and tortured by members of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) is speaking out about the perpetrators and victims in the Ejigbo Pepper Sodomy case, and now it a clear case of murder.
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Family sources told SaharaReporters there were three victims in the crime - the sodomized woman, Juliana, her stepmother, Ajoke, and her stepsister, Nike, 12.
The 12 year old is the second victim in the video clip.
The third victim, Ajoke, was brought in for torture but not shown on the video that circulated.
The video first aired on the internet in February 2013 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. Agomah Freeman, the palm wine tapper, whose wife and children were tortured was said to have been billed N150, 000 by a powerful traditional ruler in the area to have his family released to him, and was banished from the area. Mr. Agomoh and the rest of his surviving family have now relocated to Ilorin in Kwara after failing to pay the “fines” imposed by the traditional ruler and political associates of the Ejigbo local government chairman, Kehinde Bamigbetan.
Mr. Agomoh has now publicly admitted that his daughter, Juliana, died a few weeks after the torture in Ajase, Contonou, Benin Republic, where she had gone for treatment in her his hometown. That not only was she blinded and sodomized with pepper, but also her breasts were sliced leaving her with a deadly injury that got infected.
The victim Ajoke, who is Mr. Agomoh’s second wife was brought in for her own torture at same scene, but was not shown in the video clip that circulated.
"I am the mother of the young Nike and was also given the harsh treatment with ground pepper poured in my private parts," Mrs. Ajoke said.
Up to now it has been unclear where the crime happened but according to Mr. Agomoh the incident happened on the tarmac at the Iyana Ejibo market, where men of the Oodua People's Congress usually camp out with their traditional deity of Ogun, and that the perpetrators are OPC men. The women had been accused of stealing pepper.
"If anyone in the market denies this, then they all are wicked. They all witnessed it and the OPC carried out the torture. The market is owned by Oba Moruf Adisa Ojoola and he has a petrol filling station around the place," said another source.
Because the sodomy happened in public, sources think the market women have denied witnessing the crime, too afraid to speak out because they, too, could become targets.
On Monday after a public hearing at the Lagos State House Assembly, lawmakers frustrated that no-one was willing to offer any details about the case, offered N1.25 million reward for information that would lead to an arrest.
However, sources told SaharaReporters the chairman of Ejigbo local government, Mr. Bamigbetan and the police knew all along of the perpetrators but decided to shield them from the public.
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