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Maiduguri’s season of ‘stolen’ manhood

Kanem Trust learnt that the Borno State police command was investigating about six claims while in the last three months, about five incidents where men…

Kanem Trust learnt that the Borno State police command was investigating about six claims while in the last three months, about five incidents where men of different ages made wild allegations of missing manhood were recorded in different parts of Maiduguri. One of such cases was that which happened weeks ago at the School of Health Technology, Maiduguri, which resulted in hundreds of students attacking a man for allegedly ‘stealing’ the male organ of their colleague.

Our correspondent, who was at the scene of the incident when the man was being mobbed, gathered on making enquiries, that a middle-aged man drove to the school in an ash colour Jeep and was said to have had handshake with the student and thereafter the student alerted his colleagues that his manhood was, accusing the jeep owner of stealing it. Thereafter, the students pounced on the man and vandalized his vehicle.

It was learnt that for fear of being killed, the man confessed to the act and allegedly returned the ‘stolen’ manhood. Despite ‘returning’ it, the students did not stop beating him until the school authorities invited men of a joint military and police patrol team who later rescued the man from the hands of the students.

Alhaji Bukar Modu, the principal of the health institution, confirmed the incident as well as the theft. “I had called the man to interview him in respect of the allegation and he confirmed removing the manhood of the boy and but said he immediately returned it at the spot,” Modu explained.

He, however, appealed to the students to stop taking the laws into their hands as the matter was being investigated by the police. Efforts to speak with the suspect or the victim proved abortive as they were taken away by the police.

The commandant of the patrol team that rescued the suspect, Chief Superintendent of Police, Mohammed Amadu however had a different view. He said the allegation was baseless because it could not be scientifically proved.

Not long after that there was another incident involving a government aide (names withheld) who was said to have lost his genital organ after getting in contact with a man around GRA. It was gathered that when his organ was missing he grasped the suspect and alerted the public in the area. Thereafter the suspect was beaten up and the manhood was purportedly returned.

In yet another incident, a 43-year-old man (names withheld) recently fell prey to a mob and was lynched for allegedly stealing the manhood of another person in Meri area, not far from UNIMAID campus. After the attack, the man was admitted at the Umaru Shehu Ultra Modern Hospital, Bulumkutu receiving treatment of the injuries he sustained.  

A relative of the alleged suspect who spoke on condition of anonymity said “my brother had just relocated to Meri. When he returned from work, he could not trace his new house since he was not conversant with the area. So he sighted one man and asked how to locate the place. The man described it to him and my brother left. After roaming for about 10 minutes, my brother still failed to recognise the house and he decided to come back to ask the man again. As he returned to the place, he saw a large crowd with the man in their midst who quickly shouted and fingered my brother and said this is the man”.

The relative added that “thereafter, the crowd pounced on my brother, and shouted that my brother must return the manhood he had taken away. My brother screamed and declared that he was innocent but the crowd failed to listen and continued beating him, but they later spared him when, all of a sudden, the man who made the allegation raised an alarm that his a male organ was returned”.

He added that some policemen arrived the scene later and conveyed him to hospital, saying the allegation was baseless and mere falsehood aimed at misleading the general public. According to him, innocent citizens were being brutalized for an offence they didn’t commit and wondered why people resorted to taking the law into their hands; just as he called on the police and other security agents to take drastic measurers to control the ugly trend.   

Another dramatic incident happened days back along Kano Motor park when a taxi driver was also blamed for the disappearance of male organ of his passenger, but for timely intervention of policemen on patrol, the driver would have been lynched. On that encounter, it was gathered that the passenger boarded the taxi from post office, when he was about to come out from the vehicle, the passenger alerted the public that the driver had ‘stolen’ his male organ. It was gathered that confusion broke out at the scene as the crowd was about to attack the driver when the policemen swung into action and dispersed the people. It was learnt that when the police intervened, the victim confessed that his ‘missing’ organ had been restored.     These series of allegations have been disproved by actors in the medical profession. Borno State Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr Babagana Bako, described claims of missing manhood as false, saying it has never been scientifically proved that one’s male organ can be stolen by another person.   

“The increasing allegations of genital theft are of concern to us. There are several people that came to us alleging that their male organs were stolen but such claims were not scientifically proven. All we know is that genital organs react depending on the state of mind of an individual, similarly it reacts to fear. For instance, the person whose male organ was claimed to have been stolen must be in intense fear and that anxiety will pervade him and as such his hormones will make his genital to shrink and become very small and goes inward. Once this happens the person would suspect that the organ is totally missing. But after a while and when the person calms down, he will quickly say that the manhood is back, so this has been the situation of all the people we examined concerning this case”.

Dr Bako described as terrible, the manner in which members of the public react violently to the allegation without seeking professional intervention, saying whenever a person claims that his manhood is stolen, the public instantly attacks the said suspect. He admonished the public to always report such cases to hospitals so that professionals can examine the person to ascertain his claim, instead of taking the laws into their hands.

But a Maiduguri based traditional medicine practitioner Malam Musa Mamman argued that it possible that a male organ can be stolen for ritual purposes. “Let me make it clear that some people who are desperately looking for spiritual powers or aspirations may be directed to find a male organ which will be used to make a charm for them to get successes.   

“It is possible that male organ can be stolen for ritual purposes, but sometimes those alleging that their organs were missing might not necessarily be right, because some are just making such claims to amaze people, while others are suffering from a particular ailment of which they are yet to detect and that this may lead to their male organ to went down ward temporally. But my advice is that whoever found that his manhood is missing, should quickly come to us for medication and advice.

Caught at the centre of the controversy, the police issued a statement few days ago warning the general public to desist from peddling what it calls false alarm over missing male organs which leads to people taking laws into their hands.

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