There was pandemonium around the Ibom Plaza area of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, yesterday following the alarm raised by a man who claimed that his manhood had been snatched.
Narrating his ordeal, the victim, who identified himself as Patrick Peters, a member of the youth volunteers in the MOD Department of Christ the King’s Catholic Church, Wellington Bassey Way, Uyo, said Yahoo Boys hypnotized him with a white handkerchief, which he explained was casually flung around his penile region, and he felt sudden, shocking sensations on his body.
Peters, who was on his way to the church Monday morning for routine clean-up, was accosted by the suspects, who engaged him in a brief conversation before performing the white handkerchief rituals, leading to the “death” of his manhood.
He said, “During my interaction with them (the suspects), I felt something had left me because I was no longer myself.”
“I immediately sauntered into my church that’s close by the plaza for a sudden check, but discovered my manhood has shrunk, is weak, and is lifeless.
“I tried peeing but couldn’t. It was at that point that I ran in search of them and was lucky to see them escaping into the adjoining Ikot Ekpene road by the Plaza. I raised the alarm and paraded them back to my church.
“They denied collecting my manhood, and that compelled the church authorities to impress it on them the more, to no avail.”
At that point of persistent denial by the suspects, it was learned, a willing woman volunteered to test him, but there was no response, forcing the victim to call his girlfriend, who also arrived and tried as she could to revive her man’s organ, but failed after several attempts.
“We thought his inability to respond could be due to psychological issues, and that prompted us to ask him to send for his girlfriend. She came, tried, and couldn’t raise the lifeless organ.
“It was at that point that the soldiers who had been standing guard at the Plaza since the #EndSARS fracas two years ago were called in.
“They came into the church and bundled them away,” one of the worshippers recalled.
However, Leadership revealed that the suspects were temporarily detained at the Ibom Plaza location of the Army detachment before they were handed over to the police for effective investigations and prosecution.
One Ekemini Bassey, a dealer in used clothes at the Plaza, recalled that the soldiers had, about two weeks ago, apprehended another suspect who snatched another man’s organ but was arrested after sporadic shooting by soldiers, who pursued and overpowered him after he abandoned his vehicle and fled on foot along the Wellington Bassey Way for fear of being lynched.
The police public relations officer (PPRO), SP Odiko Macdon, could not pick up his calls to ascertain whether the command had received the suspects from the soldiers.
