Women are biggest victims of ritual killings – Okei-Odumakin

The President of Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei-
Odumakin, on Sunday expressed concern over the
high level of ritual killings in the South-West,
saying women were the worst targeted.
She also condemned what she termed as the
barbaric, crude and bestial handling of women in
Nigeria, describing the situation as “grossly
unacceptable.”
Okei-Odumakin, in a statement after visiting the
scene of the latest ritual site and baby factory in
Ogun State, said while her organisation was
fighting corruption, the unwholesome rise in
kidnapping, ritual killings and accompanying jungle
justice, particularly in the South-West, was a sad
development.
The human rights activist said despite the fact that
Nigerians had yet to recover from the rude blow of
the Ejigbo pepper torture, sodomy and murder
case in Lagos State, a new outbreak of bestiality in
the South-West, was disturbing.
She said, “Women Arise is seriously disturbed at
the new direction that inhumanity is taking in the
country. I have visited the scene in Abeokuta and
inspected the house.
“At Soka in Ibadan, the victims, who include
women, are so emaciated and malnourished. The
women victims also have had several children for
their captors who raped them in the cells where
they were imprisoned. Women Arise recalls that
one of the women upon her rescue said that she
had been in the den since 2008 – six years of
captivity and rape!
“While we have yet to recover from the rude blow
we got from the Ejigbo pepper torture, sodomy and
murder case in Lagos State, a new outbreak of this
bestiality around the South-West is quite
disturbing.
“While we were mourning that, we got wind of
another one in Ogun State. At the Iyana Egbado
Village in Ewekoro Local Government Area, another
kidnappers’ den was discovered with under-
clothes of victims, mostly of women, found.”
Okei-Odumakin also said her organisation had
learnt that jungle justice was on the rise with
members of the public “around these areas of
discovered horror maiming the mentally-
challenged patients on the streets.”
She added that while it was possible that
perpetrators may pretend, “it is not right to take
laws into our hands, especially as all mentally-
impaired persons on the streets who are innocent
may also become circumstantial victims in this
case.
“In all three cases of rape, kidnap and ritual
hostages mentioned above, including the Ejigbo
sodomy, it is clear enough that women have
become the targets for horror.”