Members of a quasi-security outfit in Bauchi State have killed a man, identified as Yohanna Abubakar, for allegedly stealing a male genital organ.
The state Commissioner of Police, Musa Mohammed Auwal, disclosed this in a statement.
According to him, the deceased was killed through excessive beating during interrogation in a bid to force him to admit the allegations against him.
He gave names of the professional hunters as Muhammad, Umar 43, of Takanda village and Hussain Umar, 35, of Zaranda Village.
Giving insights into the incident, the police commissioner said, “The command through sources of information and monitoring activities of security complementary bodies (quasi-security outfits) to check their activities, where on 28/09/2023 at about 0300hrs monitoring detectives received a piece of information from a reliable source that on 26/09/2023 at about 1930hrs on some professional hunters.
“The above-mentioned quasi-outfit members acted and arrested the following persons namely: Joshua Yonana, 30, Bitrus Iliya, 27, and Yonana Abubakar, 35, all of Waya village respectively.
“During interrogation by the quasi-members led to the beating-up of the suspects in a bid to force them and unravel the facts of the allegation against them.
“Suddenly, one of the suspects Yonana Abubakar collapsed and was rushed to a nearby clinic, later died and was confirmed by a medical doctor.
“On receipt of the report, a team of detectives led by DPO Toro swung into action, rushed to the scene and arrested the members of the professional hunters to reap what they had sown, while the corpse was released to the relatives for burial.”
The police preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects were alleged of spiritually stealing a male organ of one Usman Sale, 28, of Sabon Garin Nabardo.
In recent times, there has been an increase in reported cases of disappearance of genital organs in some states in the North Central, particularly in Kogi, Nasarawa, Kaduna and the nation’s capital.
The ugly trend has led to the murder of some persons by irate youths who descended on suspects for allegedly causing the mysterious disappearance of manhood.
Presidential candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC) in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, Omoyele Sowore had recently called on security agencies to rise to the occasion and stop the barbarism.
Taking to his X (former Twitter) account to condemn the barbaric act, the activist had posted, “This 80s-era barbaric phenomenon of lynching innocent persons has returned to Nigeria, it started from Calabar about a month ago and has now moved to Lokoja in Kogi state.
"The trick is accusing someone of stealing another person's manhood-an impossibility- and before anything is said the wrongly accused person is coined to death or burnt alive.
"This barbarism must be stopped now, security agencies and a conscious public must rise to the occasion immediately."
He had said in another tweet, “If these are policemen involved in these shameful interrogations, @PoliceNG must fish them out, try them and remove them from the police force.
“These are the reckless, inhuman and utterly useless police officers fuelling this deadly mirage. They must be made to provide evidence to the public how someone’s manhood was “disappeared” by this man tortured and battered by a mob. This is pathetic! #RevolutionNow.”
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