Two surviving victims of the Ejigbo, Lagos market assault have recounted how they were tortured by men suspected to be members of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), even as more facts began to emerge on how the dastardly act was executed.
The women, Ajoke Agoma and her daughter Nike Salami who were arrested, tortured and sodomized for allegedly stealing pepper at the market on Tuesday identified their gang saying they were lucky to be alive.
The youngest victim, 12-year old, Nike Salami acknowledged that she went with her sister, Juliana (now late) to the market to pick pepper worth about N50 but were latter arrested by security men guarding the market led by the Baba Oloja of the market.
Nike said: “ We went to the market to take some pepper worth N50. The next day, some people came to our house and said I should take them to where my sister works. Then they took my mummy and myself, removed our clothes and began to beat us.”
According to the teenager, the men took them back to a building inside the market which had a reputation of being used as torture chamber by the security men and subjected them to the worst forms of abuse.
“ They accused us of stealing baby clothes but we denied. Then they started beating my sister and then put some Chelsea ( dry gin) into pepper and poured it into her virginal. They held my leg up and inserted sticks into my virginal too.”
But the case assumed an interesting dimension when she identified some of her tormentors as Tirin, as shown in the video wearing jeans, Ajibola, wearing Ankara fabrics and Abolore. She also revealed that Tirin had on some occasion waylaid her on the way to the market to pressure her into becoming his girlfriend.
“Many times he would stop me on the way and I will curse him. He said he would come and take me in my mother’s house and the last time he said I will fall into his hands one day.”
Nike’s mother, Ajoke who was a nursing mother at the time of the incident was also tortured but not shown in the video. She confirmed that the gang was led by the Baba Oloja and that they threatened to kill them if they did not come up with the sum of N150,000 as bail fines. She said the family was subjected to about eight hours of torture.
“Nike is my daughter, on that day Baba Oloja led some men to the house. He slapped me so hard I urinated on myself. They took us to the market, removed my clothes, my underwear and poured pepper into my virginal. I kept screaming and they said they will kill us all.”
According to the victims, the Baba Oloja later led the gang to chase them out of the uncompleted building they were living in the night of the incident. “ Later that night, they came again and chased us out. All of us scattered everywhere, I had a baby I was nursing at the time and the baby died that day because we had nowhere to sleep,” Ajoke said.
The father who was also present said he too was arrested by the men and was not released until his son Kehinde paid the sum of N50,000 to Baba Oloja.
“ They have destroyed my life, my daughter is dead leaving four children behind. I am ruined, I want justice for my family ,” he said.
Meanwhile, Juliana was said to have died from her injuries the second month in her fathers village of Toppa in Bagagry.
