Photos: Women groups protest against torture of Ejigbo women, petitions Lagos Assembly

Photos: Women groups protest
against torture of Ejigbo women,
petitions Lagos Assembly
Women advocacy groups today marched in
protest against the violent torture and
sodomization of two women at Ejigbo over alleged
stealing of pepper. The Women Arise group
presented horrible clip of the sodomy to
participants during the protest and also presented
copies of the video in Compact Disk to members of
the Lagos State House of Assembly, who were
also handed a petition demanding investigation
and justice for the affected women. Continue...
The protesters created a catchphrase/hashtag
"#Ejigbo2" to popularize the incidence and
specifically to constant follow-up to just end.
Receiving the protesters, the Lagos House reps
promised to move a motion today and set up a
committee to immediately commence investigation
into the incidence. The reps said chairman of the
Ejigbo local government, Mr. Kehinde Bamigbetan;
all the market women in Ejigbo central market as
well as all concerned in the incidence will be called
to the panel.
Women Arise and other leaders of the protest will
also be invited to the panel.
The petition by Women Arise group to the Lagos
House of reps is reproduced below:
Attention:  Mr. Ikuforiji Adeyemi,
Speaker,
Lagos State House of Assembly,
Alausa, Ikeja,
Lagos.
Mr Speaker Sir,
PETITION ON THE DEHUMANIZATION OF TWO
WOMEN IN EJIGBO, LAGOS STATE
The above Subject refers:
We are Women Arise for Change Initiative and we
herein petition your good offices on behalf of two
Nigerian women and Lagos State Residents in
Ejigbo, hereafter referred to as “The Victims,” who
sometimes this year were subjected to one of the
most vicious forms of human rights abuses and
the unspeakable horrors of brutality by certain
depraved and savage men.
Indeed, there was outrage across the nation and
around the world when video shots of the victims
stripped naked, and being mercilessly beaten with
pepper and sodomised with strange objects went
viral (Attached is a Video CD of the sordid
scenes).
As Nigerians and fellow citizens of the world
watched the horrific scenes, they wondered if
these were shots taken in the dark ages of
savagery and primitivism.
Strangely enough, a Statement this month by the
Chairman of Ejigbo LCDA, Kehinde Bamigbetan at
the height of the furore, acknowledged that this
unimaginable horror took place in his domain in
February this year, and that the victims were a
mother and step daughter accused of stealing
pepper, and that the husband and father was a
palm-wine tapper; but Bamigbetan’s Statement
sadly to say, failed to outline the measures his
office had taken since then to assure justice for
the victims and ensure that the perpetrators are
punished. Ironically, it is the same Bamigbetan
whose gruesome kidnap few months back elicited
genuine emotions and public goodwill, and the
Lagos State Government and concerned Nigerians
spared nothing to guarantee his release, and bring
the kidnappers to book. Why did he appear to have
turned a blind eye over the ordeal of the victims,
and why is he just acknowledging to the public
these atrocities after ten good months? Or is that
the victims lives are of no value to him because
they are pepper sellers from the household of Mr.
Palm-wine tapper?
Women Arise for Change Initiative hold the belief
that all peoples, including women are created
equal by the Almighty, and they are therefore
equal before the law; women’s rights are human
rights.
To this end, we request and urge you to kindly use
your good offices to set up an inquiry into this
shameful incident and compel the Ejigbo LCDA
Chairman, Kehinde Bamigbetan to share his
knowledge of the crime and what he has done in
tracking down the purveyors of these bestialities
so that they can be brought to justice; adequate
provisions must also be made to rehabilitate the
victims, peradventure they survived these
cruelties.
We strongly believe that there is a
redemptive value for Lagos State in fishing out
these criminals for punishment so that the State is
not seen as a haven for atrocious human rights
abuses, where barbaric and savage acts are
tolerated by government officials; that is surely not
a good face to present to potential investors and
tourists to the commercial hub of the nation.
This is certainly one issue that will not die until
justice is done, and we trust that you will act
quickly and ably, and use your good offices to
ensure that justice is done, for justice too long
delayed is justice denied.
Thank you in anticipation of your prompt action.
Yours Faithfully,
Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin
President
Women Arise for Change Initiative
26, Adebowale Street,
Ojodu-Berger,
Lagos.
Website: www.womenarise.org ,
www.campaign4democracy.org .
Source: Sahara Reporters