OPD to get justice for Ejigbo torture victims

Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji

Lagos State House of Assembly has handed over the case of the women who were tortured for allegedly stealing pepper in the Ejigbo area of the state to the Office of the Public Defender.

The women were said to have been beaten up and sodomised, while their private parts were daubed with pepper. One of the victims later died.

The incident, which was posted on the Internet, went viral and attracted public outrage. Eight suspects were later arrested in connection with the crime.

The Assembly expressed confidence that the OPD would get justice for the victims, who had been identified as wife and daughters of Mr. Freeman Agomah, a statement from the assembly said on Wednesday.

Speaker of the Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, spoke at the Assembly complex in Alausa, Ikeja.

He condemned the act, saying, “It is ungodly and dehumanising. In fact, I could not believe such dastardly act happening in our own Lagos, especially in the 21st Century.”

The Speaker, who also presented the Assembly’s promised reward of N1.25m to the people that exposed the culprits behind the assault, said the reward would be shared by the family affected and those that helped in getting the culprits.

He commended the human rights organisations and activists, especially Dr. Joel Okei Odumakin; Oba of Ejigbo, MorufOjoola among others for fishing out the culprits.

He said, “I pray that God will calm the victims and give you a renewed life.”

In sharing the reward, the civil society organisations got N500, 000, the family affected got N500, 000, while the monarch was given N 250,000.

Joe-Odumakin said the Assembly had restored the people’s confidence because the lawmakers had “done the needful by making sure that those who carried out the act were apprehended.

One of the victims, a teenager, who was 12-years-old when the incident happened, said she was sodomised with pepper after the gang had finished with her stepsister.  She gave names of the gang members, claiming that one of them had wooed her in the past, but she had declined his overtures