Five women have been taken into custody by the Edo State Police Command for allegedly stripping Christabel Akhigbe naked in Benin City over phone theft.
Platinum Times reports that the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Funsho Adeboye, who disclosed this to newsmen in Benin City, said the women also videoed the victim’s nakedness and uploaded it on social media platforms.
Adegboye said the suspects accused the victim of stealing an Android phone belonging to one Blessing Lucky. They invited her to return the said mobile device. He explained that after Christabel had returned the phone to the owner, the women lured her into a room, beat and stripped her naked and also threatened to apply pepper to her private parts. The suspects then allegedly made a video of the scene and made it go viral on social media.
Adegboye said that upon receiving the complaint, police operatives arrested the suspects who confessed to the crime.
The Commissioner of Police, who gave the names of the suspects as Blessing Lucky, 15, Jennifer Eboigbe, 30, Iziegbe Ogbodu, 39, Naomi Ekhonetomwan, 17, and Lucky Endurance, 16, said they were arrested for indecent assault and cyberstalking.
While warning citizens not to take laws into their own hands, the police commissioner noted that those who would have been the complainants are now suspects in the case. He assured that the police command would cooperate with human rights organisations to ensure that the suspects pay for the crime.
The suspects, he affirmed, will soon be charged in court.
In an interview, one of the suspects, Jenifer Eboigbe, said she was ashamed of what they did to the victim.
“My daughter, Blessing, came to me and said that her phone was stolen, and after some days, we retrieved the phone from Christabel. The girl begged me that they shouldn’t beat her but despite my plea, they went ahead and stripped her naked. I am ashamed of what they did because I am a mother,” she said.