How Anambra Vigilantes Beat, Stripped Me Naked-NYSC Member, Jennifer Elohor

By Bukola Kayode

Jennifer Elohor, a 28-year-old corps member from Delta State serving in Oba, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra State, who was beaten, stripped naked, and later taken away for questioning by operatives of the state-owned security outfit, Agunechemba, who stormed the corps members’ lodge over allegations of Internet fraud, has shared her story.

Elohor who narrated her ordeal to Saturday Punch said she thought she would be killed during the vicious attack by members of the vigilante group based on their actions and threats.

Videos of the NYSC member being violently assaulted by some gun-wielding vigilantes were recently circulated on social media, leading to widespread condemnation online and offline.

Elohor explained that she was singled out for beating because she dared to ask the rampaging vigilantes for their identification, even as she tried to explain that residents of the compound stormed by the vigilantes were all NYSC members.

She told the paper: “One of them asked what gave me the “liver” (courage) to confront them. They called me a prostitute and other names, and they kept beating me even as I was naked and helpless. Much of what they said was in Igbo. The Igbo-speaking corps members later told me what it meant…… I begged them to let me wear something, but they refused, saying I was stubborn and a prostitute and would follow them like that”.

Elohor further explained that she was conveyed to the office of the vigilantes naked despite her pleading to get another dress after the violent security personnel had stripped her naked. She added: “Yes, I was completely naked. I used my hands to cover myself. I was bleeding, but they didn’t care. They dragged me into their vehicle naked. They also dragged the other corps members, nine of us in total, into their vehicles. In the van, they harassed me and pressed my neck.

“One of them threatened again that if I made any sound, they’d shoot me and dump my body in the bush, and boasted that nothing would happen. At that moment, I believed him. Nobody knew me. If they had shot me and dumped my body, who would look for me?”

Still speaking on the violent attack which was condemned by the Nigerian Bar Association, Elohor said it wasn’t until all the NYSC members arrested at the ‘Corpers” Lodge were taken to the office of the vigilante group, that they finally knew who their abductors were.

She said: We were driven through a bush path to an open field where we saw other young people sitting on the floor. They ordered us to sit down, too. All the while, I was still naked. A corps member gave me his shirt to wear, leaving himself bare-chested. Imagine me sitting under a tree in a completely open space like that.

“I thought I was going to die. I felt the end had come. I thought they were kidnappers or ritualists. They could have taken alternative routes, but chose the bush path. If they had shot us and dumped our bodies somewhere, no one would know. They were masked and armed. It was as if they disguised themselves intentionally. I had already been stripped of my dignity and beaten. It was only when we got to the secretariat that I managed to see some of their faces”.

When asked about how the NYSC handled the matter, Elohor expressed disappointment at the response of her LGI coordinator.

She explained: “Immediately after we were released, we called our LGI, and he said he would come and see us the next day. At that time, I didn’t even know there was video evidence. I never knew that one of us, who was bathing when the raid happened, had made a video from afar before he was eventually arrested. He captured the moment I was beaten, wounded, and stripped naked. We eventually sent the video to the LGI, and he came that night at around 9:20 p.m.

“When he got there and we explained everything to him, he said, “Okay. This is why I said you people should be walking in groups, in case of situations like this.”

“I was shocked when he added, “What has happened has happened. Some of you ladies are going to get married to men who beat women. So, this is training for you.”