EJIGBO JUNGLE JUSTICE IS A CRIME AGAINST NATURE...STORY SO FAR

Sodomy has been broadly defined as a sexual "crime against nature"—a phrase echoed by then Chief Justice Warren Burger, a United State Supreme Court Judge in 1986. The crime committed by : Jibola, Tiri, Agbolere and Isiaka Waheed, a.k.a Baba Saida (Babaloja or market leader)’ was a crime against humanity and if they were found guilty, these guys must face the full scale of law of the land.

The victims of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC) vigilante group in Ejigbo area of Lagos whose video went viral in December were in Lagos earlier today to meet with the Lagos House of Assembly Adhoc committee led by the Majority leader. The victims include Nike Salami (age 12 and a JSS student), her mother Ajoke Agomah in the company of Ajoke’s husband and father of Juliana (third victim who died as an aftermath of the torture), Freeman Agomah, as well as their son Kehinde Agomah. Juliana Agomah (age 28) died two months after the February 2013 torture by OPC men for alleged stealing of pepper at Iyana-Ejigbo market in Lagos (case came to public knowledge when the video of the torture went viral in December 2013).

The OPC torturers have been named as Jibola, Tiri, Agbolere and Isiaka Waheed, a.k.a Baba Saida (Babaloja or market leader). Quoting Nike, aged 12 years: --‘’Before now some of the OPC men had made love advances at me but I always run away. ‘’--The OPC vigilantes are well known in the area for torture of persons alleged to have stolen and on one particular occasion, they killed a man. 

They drove us away when we gathered to watch them in the market. --My sister Juliana asked me to follow her to the market and we took N50 (Fifty Naira) pepper. But the OPC men said we stole baby clothes. --They stripped my sister, me and my mother naked, rub liquid pepper on our bodies and mix grinded pepper with Chelsea gin, put into a bottle and pour it into our private parts. They also inserted sticks into all our private parts while beating us.

Other Facts: The Babaloja insisted the victims’ family must pay a fine of N150, 000. After much pleading they accepted to receive N50, 000, out of which a deposit of N20, 000 was paid that day. It was after the payment that the now tortured and almost unconscious victims were taken away from the ‘torture chamber.

The victim’s brother Kehinde was later harassed by the OPC men into paying the balance shortly after. The torture lasted from about noon to evening of same day. After that the victims’ landlord was asked to evict them, their uncompleted building house demolished and they were chased out of the community same day.

 A very sick Juliana was then taken to Toppa near Badagry border where a nurse attended to her at home, in addition to traditional treatments. The two surviving females (Nike and mother) are yet to receive any form of treatment for the sodomy and brutal torture. The video that went viral is only just only a little peep of what actually transpired and the extent of the torture.

 The torturers were said to have stomped on the head of Juliana, hit her so much that she had blood oozing from her eyes and other parts of her body. She also had a big gash on one of her breasts. Juliana who worked at a restaurant earning N3, 000 (Three Thousand Naira per month or N100 daily) is survived by four children, the oldest being 10 years and the youngest been a toddler.

The family currently relocated out of Lagos and yet to be settled. Moves by civil society and well-meaning Nigerians in the country and United Kingdom, and being coordinated by Dr. Joe Odumakin of Women Arise, at providing relief for them, currently on. We look forward to the Ejigbo Local Government and Lagos State Government to see to their resettlement.

 Besides a transport fare by the House Leader of the Lagos State House of Assembly when they made an earlier appearance, no form of relief effort or assistance have been given them so far, either from Ejigbo LCDA or the Lagos State Government, not even to Juliana’s surviving kids.

 Latest intervention: --The Inspector –General of police has ordered the Special Anti-Robbery Squad to take over the case. --The Lagos House of Assembly Adhoc committee set to investigate the matter met with the victims earlier yesterday, (January 21). --The informant who provided valid information leading to the discovery of the family is to be awarded the N1, 000,000 ransom by the House in addition to N250, 000 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) addition sum by the committee chair and Lagos House Majority Leader, Hon. Ajibayo Adeyeye.

The informant’s intervention exposed the insincerity of government and the police and what appeared subtle moves to ‘kill’ the case considering ‘the untouchables’ interconnected with the torture saga i.e. The ‘principalities’ at Ejigbo community, by declaring that neither the victims nor the culprits ‘could be found’).

-The wide coverage by the media and civil society advocacy helped in making the case ‘undying’. -- Oliver Abbey, the police DPO of Ejigbo who earlier ‘parried’ the investigation has been transferred out of the area. --The Iyana-Ejigbo market has already being shut down at the order of the Iya-loja of Lagos while the culprits have been arrested awaiting a rraignment.