Lagos State House of Assembly has promised to give N1 million to anybody that could give clue on how to arrest those who allegedly injected pepper into the private parts of two women accused of stealing in Ejigbo area of the state last year.
The reward is offered following a public hearing today at the Lagos State House Assembly where testimony was heard from the Chairman of the Ejigbo Local Government, Kehinde Bamigbetan, the Police Department, civil society leaders, community leaders and market women.
Dr Joe-Okei Odumakin, President of the Women Arise alongside others had on December 23, 2013 staged a peaceful protest to the House over the incident, urging the lawmakers to rise up and ensure that perpetrators of such dastardly act are brought to book.
During the hearing Dr. Okei-Odumakin, asked that the video of the sodomy, which brought to light the despicable act be played at the hearing.
The video first aired on the internet in February 2013, and 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.
Read our earlier report and video here
Against backdrop of the protest, Speaker of the House, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, constituted ad-hoc committee headed by Adeyeye to unravel the root cause of the incident without further delay.
In his opening remarks, Adeyeye said that the meeting was geared towards unravelling misery behind the inhumane and barbaric treatment meted out on the women accused of stealing and ensure that the victims get desired justice and bring the culprits to book.
“On behalf of the House, I hereby welcome you to a public stakeholders’ meeting towards unravelling misery behind the inhumane and barbaric treatment meted out on two women for allegedly stealing pepper. Lagos Assembly is poised to ensure that no citizen of the state is maltreated for any reason whatsoever and this gathering is also meant to forestall future occurrence of such dastardly act.”
However, President of Women Arise Initiative, Dr Joe-Okei Odumakin, who first craved the indulgence of members of the committee and other stakeholders to allow the technical crew to play the video clip of the incident for their viewing, said that the greatest thing she and other concerned people could do for the victims is to let them have justice, while perpetrators of the heinous crime are made to face the wrath of law.