The President of Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, on Sunday expressed concern over the high level of ritual killings in the South-West, saying women were the worst targeted.

She also condemned what she termed as the barbaric, crude and bestial handling of women in Nigeria, describing the situation as “grossly unacceptable.”

Okei-Odumakin, in a statement after visiting the scene of the latest ritual site and baby factory in Ogun State, said while her organisation was fighting corruption, the unwholesome rise in kidnapping, ritual killings and accompanying jungle justice, particularly in the South-West, was a sad development.

The human rights activist said despite the fact that Nigerians had yet to recover from the rude blow of the Ejigbo pepper torture, sodomy and murder case in Lagos State, a new outbreak of bestiality in the South-West, was disturbing.

She said, “Women Arise is seriously disturbed at the new direction that inhumanity is taking in the country. I have visited the scene in Abeokuta and inspected the house.

“At Soka in Ibadan, the victims, who include women, are so emaciated and malnourished. The women victims also have had several children for their captors who raped them in the cells where they were imprisoned. Women Arise recalls that one of the women upon her rescue said that she had been in the den since 2008 – six years of captivity and rape!

“While we have yet to recover from the rude blow we got from the Ejigbo pepper torture, sodomy and murder case in Lagos State, a new outbreak of this bestiality around the South-West is quite disturbing.

“While we were mourning that, we got wind of another one in Ogun State. At the Iyana Egbado Village in Ewekoro Local Government Area, another kidnappers’ den was discovered with under-clothes of victims, mostly of women, found.”

Okei-Odumakin also said her organisation had learnt that jungle justice was on the rise with members of the public “around these areas of discovered horror maiming the mentally-challenged patients on the streets.”

She added that while it was possible that perpetrators may pretend, “it is not right to take laws into our hands, especially as all mentally-impaired persons on the streets who are innocent may also become circumstantial victims in this case.

“In all three cases of rape, kidnap and ritual hostages mentioned above, including the Ejigbo sodomy, it is clear enough that women have become the targets for horror.”

-Punch