Missing genitals’ controversy rages, experts dismiss claims, jungle justice for accused persons
As unproven claims of ‘missing genitals’ seems to be spreading, gratuitous violence has been unleashed on persons believed to be responsible for it, VICTOR AYENI writes on this and the views of experts who describe it as a delusion reinforced by mental health issues
Grace Abraham was obviously engulfed in panic as she reeled out her name in rapid succession to a stern male voice probing her with questions in a disturbing video posted on TikTok on October 7.
In the video, the woman who admitted being a resident of Gosa community in the Federal Capital Territory was accused by two men of “magically” stealing their penises.
A boy – who appeared to be her son –stood close as her native attire was drenched in sweat as she nervously fiddled with a phone in her hand.
“So your business is to remove people’s phalluses; you go about stealing men’s penises, you now want to make a phone call the way you give men your phone so that after they are done making the call, penis will vanish. Isn’t it?” Abraham’s accuser yelled in the video which has been shared by 458 TikTok users as of Wednesday afternoon.
The woman made efforts to deny each accusation, shaking her head to convey her innocence, but the man in the video had none of it.
Speaking in pidgin, he screamed, “Call that person you want to call right now and you know what, you will return these men’s genitals to them. Today, you will die. Today will be the first and last time you will do this thing.”
The two men who claimed to have had their manhood “stolen” in the video were fully clothed and there was no photographic or video evidence beyond their claims.
However, Saturday PUNCH learnt that these men were later arrested for making false claims and the woman was rescued by security operatives.
On Sunday, October 8, a similar allegation was made by 18-year-old Ebube Linus against a 68-year-old widow, Mrs Ann Ekechukwu, in Asaba, Delta State.
Linus had raised the alarm that the woman, a fellow passenger in a tricycle, physically touched him after which his manhood allegedly vanished.
According to a disturbing video that went viral, misguided touts mobbed Ekechukwu and stripped her naked before she was rescued by the police.
Speaking to journalists after his arrest, Linus said, “I greeted her and she replied to my greeting. So, as I alighted from the DBS junction I started feeling somehow and I went to meet the woman to ask, ‘What did you do to my body? Reverse what you did’.”
But after an investigation, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Bright Edafe, said, “We later discovered that nothing was wrong with him (Linus), as his manhood was intact. He just lied against a poor woman, a mother, a daughter and a wife.”
Wave of disappearing penises
For many Nigerians, stories of people claiming their privates went missing usually after a physical touch by someone else are not new. Findings by our correspondent showed that the self-acclaimed victims are usually men, and the body part they often claim ‘disappear’ is the penis.
Oftentimes, the victims claim they felt a sensation in their body after touch or an encounter with someone, prompting them to raise an alarm to attract a crowd, after which a ‘culprit’ is fingered as responsible and passersby become the street court and judge.
A demand is made of the accused to replace the affected organ, and if they unfortunately fail to do so, a harsh death in the hands of a raging mob is often on the cards.
For weeks, there have been several claims of stolen genitals across the country. Although there is no visual evidence to substantiate these claims, our correspondent gathered that they have instilled a morbid fear among many men.
An Abuja resident, Gbola Olukoya, said such claims had generated much panic among citizens.
He told our correspondent, “The stories are many here. In fact, many men are now purchasing charcoal, bitter kola and needles and placing them in their pockets whenever they go out because they believe these things will prevent their genitals from being stolen. It’s that bad.”
Commenting on the baffling trend, another Abuja resident, Mr Kingsley Godwin, said, “I have heard of cases of missing organs but where are the pictures or videos to confirm these things? None. These are the results of years of people being conditioned by Nollywood and religious tales about body parts being stolen or retrieved by magic and witchcraft. Now, we are seeing the result; people readily believe these things without any proof.”
On his part, a businessman who also resides in the capital city, Joseph Ehioghae, described the claims of ‘missing manhood’ as a format used by criminals.
Ehioghae stated, “Most of the time, those individuals being accused are actually the victims and those claiming their manhood disappeared are the real criminals. These criminals would position themselves around and look out for someone they know they can easily intimidate and walk up to them and hit them.
“If you are frightened, the criminal would scream at the top of his voice that his penis disappeared. This is the new method used to rob people of their valuables.”
Corroborating Ehioghae’s observation, a clinical psychologist and psychotherapist at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Benin, Edo State, Afolabi Aroyewun, said at the root of the false allegations was economic hardship.
He noted, “What we are seeing now is caused by the economic hardship Nigeria is currently facing. It is a situation people now use as a decoy for mob action, to steal and commit crime. The prevalence is a result of the economic crisis because things are not easy.
“Some people who have been living on charity and the goodwill of others but no longer enjoy that because there is not much to give have to compensate for that, they devise other means of getting money.
“The focus of the individuals is not on the missing genitalia. When it happens, the situation is used to raise a false alarm, which would cause a mob action and while that is going on, their colleagues around the scene would use the opportunity to commit several atrocities.”
The descent into barbarism
As rumours and panic spread with the tales of missing genitals across different states, insatiable violence also began to accompany it.
On Friday last week, the FCT police command disclosed that about 62 cases of alleged disappearance of manhood had been reported across the territory.
The FCT Commissioner of Police, Haruna Garba, also revealed that 51 suspects who wrongfully accused others of stealing their manhoods had been arrested and charged to court for misinformation and causing breach of public peace.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the first among recently reported cases of male organ ‘disappearance’ was on September 20 when one John Ugwu in Gwagwalada area of Abuja made the allegation, resulting in the lynching of the accused.
On September 22, a young man named Rokeeb Saheed, also accused one Lucky Josiah of causing his male organ to “go missing,” whereas a medical examination by the police confirmed that Saheed’s organ was fine.
A video that was shared on X (formerly Twitter) on October 6 showed Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps officers viciously assaulting a middle-aged man who was alleged to have “stolen” the manhood of two men at the national headquarters of the agency in Sauka, Abuja.
Days after the video went viral, the Commandant-General NSCDC, Dr Ahmed Abubakar Audi, called for “the arrest of the officers involved for questioning and thereafter, necessary action”.
On October 7, an angry mob in the Dei Dei area attacked policemen who had gone to rescue a man identified as Mubarak who was almost lynched over an allegation of manhood disappearance.
Two days later, residents of Lugbe mobbed two young men after one Abdulrasheed Jeje raised an alarm, alleging that they had made his manhood vanish.
The Kogi State Police Command on October 10 paraded three suspects – Harish Abdurasheed, 18; Yakubu Mohammed, 25; and Haruna Adamu, 28, for false alarm that led to the lynching of a man accused of ‘snatching’ their genitals.
Similar allegations have also been made in Nasarawa State. On October 8, an unidentified man narrowly escaped being lynched in the Mararaba community after his sport utility vehicle was set ablaze for allegedly stealing a male private parts.
In Lafia, it was alleged that three persons’ manhoods disappeared in Tudun Kwandara, followed by cases at the Federal University, Lafia, and Tudun Kauri which prompted the state PPRO, Rahman Nansel, to warn that drastic measures would be taken against anyone caught misleading the public.
