A 28-year-old mother of four, Mrs. Nsini Francis- Ubom, has been battered and stripped naked over an unsubstantiated claim by a female farm owner that she stole cassava tubers from her farm.
Report says, Nsini was later paraded by some villagers who inserted a cassava tuber in her private part while others photographed her nude appearance. She was then made to carry the allegedly stolen tubers on her head and walked around the village.
However, when some worried residents saw the way the woman was treated, they cried out that the villagers might put laws in their hand as they were dealing with the woman unlawfully. With this timely call, Mrs Ubom was handed over to police at Ikot Osute.
Some police officers arrested the victim and his palm wine tapper husband and they were both detained for three-days before they were eventually released.
Narrating her ordeal, Mrs Ubom said.
“The incident happened October 6. I was at home throughout that morning selling the palm wine that my husband tapped. A police officer was one of the people that came to buy palm wine that day. I was indoors throughout.
“But later in the afternoon, I decided to go to my mother’s place and I boarded a motorcycle to drop me. Churchill Ifiaku, son of my accuser and few other youths stopped me and asked me to enter their motorcycles.
“I insisted that I will not go with them immediately but they forced and dragged me to the house of the acting village head, Nse Peter Eteidung, who later directed them to take me to the village square.
“At the village square, they brought out a pair of bathroom slippers they claimed the cassava thief left behind in the farm and asked some children within the neighbourhood if they could identify who the slippers belong to, but those children answered them that they have not seen such slippers before.
“They started shouting at me and asking why I went to uproot the cassava tubers from a farm that does not belong to me and I told them that I did not do it. I tried to explain to them that I had never left my home that day until when they met me going out with a commercial motorcycle, but they did not listen to my explanation. Instead, they started flogging me with cassava stems and sticks, shouting that I was a thief,”
Mrs. Ubom after narrating her ordeal demanded justice.
The accuser surfaced and gave her own side of the story.
She said “Then they sent for the woman who accused me of stealing cassava tubers from her farm. When she came, she still claimed that I was the person she saw in the early hours of the morning using a torch to uproot cassava from her farm. I told her that I was not the person she saw, but they asked me to shut up that I was the one that stole the cassava.
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“I even told them that I was ready to swear an oath in order to prove my innocence but the village head said he does not have the time for me to do so. He then directed them to go ahead and do to me what they normally do when they catch a thief.”
“They stripped me and asked me to carry the said stolen cassava, which they stacked in a sack bag on my head around the whole village. They even inserted a cassava tuber into my private part. They started making a mockery of me. Some even took my nude pictures with their cell phones.”
However, the husband of the accuser, Mr Isip who also is a school teacher wrote an apologetic letter to plead with Mrs Ubom for the unjust punishment brought upon her by his wife. In a bid to appease her, he reportedly gave her some money to replace some of her missing items like phone etc.
Meanwhile, the Akwa Ibom citizens have frowned at the act, expressing concern that jungle justice still thrives in some parts of the state, particularly the Annang axis. They demanded that violators of fundamental human rights of citizens should face the wrath of the law.
The Executive Director, Community Policing Partners for Justice, Security and Democratic Reforms, Akwa Ibom state, Mr. Saviour Akpan, said his organization will petition the Human Rights Commission and the United Nations to look into the matter, adding, “It is a very serious criminal offense. It is a violation of the fundamental right of the citizen; traditional leaders do not have any rights to handle criminal cases.”
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