Womanifesto, a coalition of over 500 women’s rights organisations, has demanded that the Delta State Government and the Inspector General of Police (IGP) take immediate and decisive action against alleged sexual violence against women in Ozoro, the headquarters of Isoko North Local Government Area.
Also, a former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili has described the scale and coordination of the action as another evidence of the failure of governance and preventive policing in Nigeria.
During the week, viral video showed alleged harassment and sexual assault of women and girls during a recent cultural festival in Ozoro.
The videos, which have sparked nationwide anger, show groups of youths allegedly chasing, harassing and molesting women in public spaces, with some victims seen crying and calling for help.
The state police command, however, said that it has arrested a community head and four other suspects over the incident.
In a statement on Friday, the Command’s spokesman, Deputy Superintendent Bright Edafe said that the state Police Commissioner, Aina Adesola, had ordered the transfer of the suspects to the state criminal investigation department.
‘The community head and chief organiser of the event, one Chief Omorede Sunday, and four other suspects from Oramudu quarters in Ozoro have been arrested.
‘The CP has ordered that they should be transferred to State CID with immediate effect. The CP vows that anyone involved will be arrested and brought to justice’, Edafe said.
In a statement by its Co- convener, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, Womanifesto demanded that the state government should immediately ‘deploy security forces to Ozoro to halt these attacks and protect women and girls for the remainder of this festival period’.
It also called on the IGP and the state Commissioner of Police to make arrests of ‘perpetrators, including those identifiable in circulating video footage, and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law’.
Womanifesto alleged that the sexual violence in the community is being perpetrated under the cover of a so-called traditional festival.
According to the coalition, witnesses said that women are being stripped naked in the public and subjected to mob attacks by groups of men. It argued that such act could not be attributed to culture
The groups argued: ‘This is not our culture. This is organised, institutionalised rape, and it must be named as such. No tradition, no deity, no community elder, and no cultural practice has the authority to suspend the bodily autonomy of women.
‘Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to dignity, freedom of movement, and protection from inhumane treatment. These rights do not evaporate at noon. The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (2015) confirms that the threat of violence is violence in itself.
‘Hence, any person or authority that tells women to stay indoors or face violence is committing a crime punishable under Nigerian Law’.
Womanifesto condemned the perpetrators of the attacks without reservation or qualification, and the community leaders who sanctioned the violence, and the bystanders who watched and did nothing, or worse, filmed the gross, horrific violation of these women.
It also demanded: ‘That the Federal Government of Nigeria issue a clear public statement affirming that no traditional festival supersedes constitutional rights or federal law, including the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act.
‘That traditional rulers and community leaders in Ozoro publicly and unequivocally disavow any claim that this violence is sanctioned by tradition.
‘We also call upon Nigerian civil society, women’s rights organisations, the National Human Rights Commission, and international bodies, including the United Nations, to treat this situation with the urgency it demands. Videos of women being stripped and assaulted by mobs are evidence of crimes in progress and must be treated as such’.
In her intervention, Ezekwesili, who is the Founder School of Politics, Policy and Governance, said that the ‘barbaric’ action raised urgent questions about intelligence, community policing, and the visible presence or absence of law enforcement
The activist, who was also a Minister of Solid Minerals, said: ‘The scale and coordination of the sexual attacks of girls and women in repulsive videos and images suggest that those criminal violation of women were not at all spontaneous. It therefore raises urgent questions about intelligence, community policing, and the visible presence or absence of law enforcement.
‘The failure of governance is evident in the deeply disgusting, disgraceful and completely unacceptable acts that depraved men audaciously perpetrated in that community. There is no culture, no tradition, and no circumstance that justifies the assault of women’.
She declared that what occurred in Ozoro community was not cultural expression; it was criminal violation and violence against women, and dangerous criminal behaviour.
‘It was organised, brazen, and dangerous criminal behaviour by criminals who believe that, as usual, there will be no consequences for their acts of depravity. When a society begins to warn women to stay indoors to avoid being attacked, instead of restraining and punishing those who commit such acts, that society is signalling a total collapse of law, order, and moral leadership’.
The former Vice‑President for Africa at the World Bank called on the state government and the IGP to move beyond making statements.
She said: ‘The Delta Government and the Nigeria Police, led by IG of Police, Tunji Disu must move beyond the statements made. Every individual involved must be identified, arrested, and prosecuted without delay. Justice must be visible, swift, and decisive.
‘But beyond enforcement, this is a moment of reflection for all of us as Nigerians — political and traditional leaders, citizens, communities and organisations. We must collectively act firmly or risk enabling a dangerous precedent, like we have on other matters where Nigeria has normalised impunity’.
She emphasised that the moment demands more than reactive arrests but requires immediate prosecution of all identified perpetrators by the Police, a public accountability process led by the state government, clear deterrence signals through swift judicial action, nationwide reinforcement of zero tolerance for gender-based violence and strengthening of community-level intelligence and policing systems
The former Minister pointed out that Ozoro is a core test of state capacity and legitimacy, which is ‘clearly now too eroded for comfort, stressing that above all, the key question in all of these is how deeper do we as Nigerians want our country to sink’?
