The women were assaulted for allegedly stealing pepper
The founder of the O’odua People’s Congress, OPC, Frederick Fasehun, on Tuesday ordered his members to hunt those involved in the alleged torture of two women in Ejigbo, Lagos State.
Mr. Fasehun also commended the Lagos State House of Assembly and the Majority Leader, Mojibayo Adeyeye, for placing N1 million and N250,000 bounties respectively on the culprits.
The Lagos House of Assembly, after a public hearing on the matter on January 8, promised a reward of N1 million for information that would lead to the arrest of the culprits.
An organisation, Women Arise, had on December 23, 2013, staged a protest to the assembly to create awareness on the abuse and brutalisation of the women sometime in February, 2013.
The women were accused of stealing pepper.
In a statement in Lagos, Mr. Fasehun ordered members of the OPC to hunt for the culprits and turn them over to law enforcement agents.
According to him, the move by the assembly and the majority leader cleared Nigerians of corporate guilt in human rights violation.
He, however, urged members of the public to discountenance insinuations that members of the OPC had a hand in the incident.
“The treatment meted out to them violently contradicts everything OPC stands for. OPC is an organisation specifically dedicated to promoting the corporate interest of the Yoruba nationality and upholding the dignity of the Yoruba man or woman. Authentic members of OPC can be easily recognised through identity cards bearing their personal signatures, and issued by the group’s national headquarters,” Mr. Fasehun said.
According to him, the police could testify that OPC vigilante operatives never resort to extra-judicial treatment, torture or killing of apprehended offenders irrespective of the nature of the offence.
Mr. Fasehun said that an average OPC member had been trained and had sworn to hold as sacrosanct, human rights.
He urged relevant authorities to bring the criminals and their godfathers to book.
“This will serve the purpose of justice as well as act as a deterrent to others,” he said.
(NAN)
