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Nigerian Police Arrest Six Persons For Brutalising Widow In Enugu Community Over ‘Forbidden Snails’

Nigerian Police Arrest Six Persons For Brutalising Widow In Enugu Community Over ‘Forbidden Snails’
November 5, 2022

The youths also compelled her to walk around the community naked as punishment for her actions and also assaulted her.

The Nigeria Police Force has arrested six people involved in the alleged torture and dehumanisation of a widow in an Enugu State community.

SaharaReporters reported that Mrs. Anthonia Umeabelu Okonkwo, a mother of four, was on October 22, stripped naked by youths of Agunese Affam-Mmaku community in the Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State for allegedly picking snails in a forest supposedly forbidden.

The youths also compelled her to walk around the community naked as punishment for her actions and also assaulted her.

A video of the incident which went viral last week attracted public condemnation and outrage.

Consequently, an organisation that seeks the protection of women's rights and the girl child, Women Aid Collective (WACOL), petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba over the assault and brutalisation suffered by the woman.

SaharaReporters reported that the group asked the police chief to order for the arrest and prosecution of all the suspects involved in the assault.

In the petition signed by its Executive Director, Prof. Joy Ezeilo (SAN), titled: "Urgent Appeal For Intervention," the organisation had said, "We are writing you this protest letter to report an act of inhumanity, human debasement, physical and emotional torture meted on a widow with four children (Mrs. Anthonia Umeabelu Okonkwo) living in Enugu State, by her own community.

"On the 22nd day of October, 2022, the community of Agunese Affam-Mmaku, in Awgu L.G.A of Enugu State, in the practice of brazen barbarity, stripped a widow naked, and compelled her to walk around the community in her nudity because she allegedly picked snails from a certain forest in that community, considered an evil ground."

The organisation stated that contrary to reports in some quarters, its on-the-spot analysis of the event and visit to the hospital where the victim was recuperating indicates that the ground where the snails were harvested was not forbidden.

It noted that the suspects identified as "Sunday Nwangene, Jonathan Nwangene, Obi Nwangene, Chigazu Okpala, Okechukwu Okeke, Chukwudi Anikene, Chukwuebuka Agu, Mmaduabuchi and his father, including the girl who recorded the video, were wrongly informed," which led to them to take the law into their hands.

 

Meanwhile, the Enugu State Police Command in statement signed by its spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, on Friday night, said six persons suspected to have been involved in the attack had been arrested.

Ndukwe in the statement noted that the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Ammani, had directed the State Criminal Investigation Department to conduct a full-scale investigation into the "viral case of alleged stripping naked of a woman (names withheld) at Agunese, Afam-Mmaku in Awgu Local Government Area, by some youths of the community numbering over twenty (20), on 27/10/2022, over the allegation that she desecrated their shrine by picking snails therein."

"Consequently, six (6) male suspects have been arrested, including one Okoro Stan aged 46, alleged to have led others in perpetrating the act of beating and parading the said victim round the community.

"Others include: Jonathan Nwangene aged 43, Maduabuchi Madueke aged 34, Obioma Nwangene aged 39, Anikene Samuel aged 24 and Chukwuebuka Agu aged 32. In addition, frantic investigative efforts are ongoing to arrest others at large."

The Command's spokesman further stated ongoing investigation into the case showed that the suspects also beat up and caused bodily injuries on the victim’s husband and brother, when they attempted to stop them from carrying out the act.

 

He quoted the Police Commissioner to have condemned the acts of torture, dehumanisation and degradation of the person of the victim in contravention of extant laws, especially those bordering on her dignity and fundamental human rights.