Iniubong Umoren: Was it Gender-Based Violence or Ritual Murder
Iniubong Umoren was raped, then murdered by a man who would have gotten away with it if not for social media that helped ferret him out.
Iniubong Umoren turned on Location on her mobile phone. She purportedly told friends and family where she was going. She provided the phone number of the person she was going to meet to her sister. She undoubtedly went in broad day light.
Iniubong properly checked all the key boxes. All the boxes that victims get shamed for not checking. She, by heart was a determined girl looking for the light in the deep deep tunnel of unemployment our country faces.
Her gruesome murder informs us that women know how to protect themselves. It is the assaulters and ritual murderers we have to worry about. It is our biases that we need to check.
Realistically, was it gender-based violence or pure ritual murder? We seek answers
What Happened to Iniobong Umoren
Iniubong Umoren was a 26-year-old graduate of the University of Uyo in Nigeria who posted on Twitter that she was available to work. Uduak Frank responded to invite her to an interview at his company. On the 29th of April 2021, she went for the job interview and did not make it back home alive.
Her family has received her mangled corpse. The killer, identified as Uduak Frank Akpan raped her and buried her body in a shallow grave in his father’s compound.
The police say Akpan is a serial rapist and killer. Others believe it is gender-based violence. But because of the prevalence of ritual deaths in Nigeria, it will be naïve to rule out ritual murder.
People in Nigeria do not want the case to go cold as other gender-based violence and ritual cases before this one. Nothing gets done, people move on, and before long, it is another ritual murder case trending.
Iniubong Umoren got murdered by the man who lured her with a fake job interview.
Her family reported their suspicions to the Police who did nothing. Police solely consider a person missing or an emergency after 48hrs. Uncountable people have lost their lives because of this 48-hour rule.
Several other girls have come out saying they narrowly escaped death at his hands. Others believe he is a ritual killer working for influential and insulated members of society.
Ritual Killings In Nigeria
In Nigeria, people are used to ritual murders happening periodically. It is not uncommon to see a murdered body with eyes or genitalia cut off on your way to work. People have suffered near-death experiences at the hands of ritual killers. When leaving for work too early in the morning, you pray not to board a ‘one chance bus’ and never lay eyes on your loved ones again.
Are you a woman or a child? You have to careful who you talk to strangers because women are in-demand commodities in the ritual body parts market. Hunchbacks, albinos, disabled people are not left out.
Wealth inequality and the drive for success drive the ritual killing market in Nigeria. People do not believe they can secure elections or succeed in business without blood sacrifices.
Ritualists, also known as headhunters, find human parts at the request of herbalists, who require them for sacrifices or various magical potions.
Such rituals are reportedly motivated by the belief that they can induce power and wealth to an individual. Sources also show charms are widely believed to make a person invincible and protect them from business failure, illness, accidents, and spiritual attacks.
Nigerians believe in the effectiveness of such rituals. Experts attribute the prevalence of ritual murder to the continuing belief among many Nigerians, even educated ones, in the supernatural. The belief in the power of ritual murders is strongly-held among the local population of southern Nigeria. This including people of different faiths and academic backgrounds and not only among traditional worshipers and illiterates.
Women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities, as well as family members of ritualists are targets.
According to a sociologist at Bayero University in Kano who was interviewed by Agence France-Presse, fetish priests in Nigeria prefer women and children’s body parts for get-rich-quick potions.
In recent times, the number of brutal murders for ritual purposes has been on the rise.
Gender-Based Violence
Gender-based violence is oppressive and inequality that continues to hold women back. This form of violence rides on socially accepted gender differences between a male and a female. Women deserve to be trained, constant punishment and harm because in many parts of Nigeria, women inferior to men.
Many religions and cultures also believe that women exist to satisfy men sexually. Consequently if the man has to take it by force, its fine. What was she doing ‘there’, anyway? ‘There’ in this case could be on her way to school, at a party, walking at night while dressed nicely. The list
The blame for assault is typically on the women. People and even law enforcement agencies still ask questions such as; Why did she go there? How was she groomed? Where did she encounter him?
Gender-based violence includes sexual harassment, physical violence, harmful traditional practices, violence against non-combatant women.
Umoren was raped, then murdered by a man who would have gotten away with it if not for social media that helped ferret him out.
Because of our highly superstitious beliefs as a country, most of the killing and harvesting of women’s body parts is ritually motivated and bankrolled by influential Nigerians. Some of whom hold important offices in the country.
In 2020, a man named Gracious David-West was sentenced to death by a court in Rivers State. His victims, all women, were strangled to death by him.
In Port Harcourt he killed; Maureen Ewuru, Jennifer Nwokocha, Linda Waripa, Dorcas Francis, Blessing Effiong, Rose Samuel, Kelechi Bridget Onuoha, Patience Hamo, Antonia Ibe.
He later confessed to executing six other women in different parts of the country in the same manner.
BBC reported that friends and family members of the deceased never appeared in court. Except for the father of one victim who only came once. “It was as if they had no one, no address, nothing to track them with.”
Authorities say the pattern of the murders point to serial killing — he had sex with his victims before binding their arms and feet with strips of white sheets.
He additionally used sheets to strangle them, the court heard.
Several of his victims were sex workers. The authorities also think he was working with accomplices. At the height of the killings in September 2019, outraged citizens of Port Harcourt took to the streets, requesting authorities to investigate the murders.
Initially, the government refused to address the killings or the severity of the crime. On social media, people showed outrage and continued to say that David-West got protected by the authorities because they did not seem to care about the murders.
David-West was born in Buguma, a fishing town in River state. A place that has a history with oil militants who operated out of its many mangrove swamps at the height of the oil militancy in the Niger Delta in the early 2000s. Police say David-West was a member of the Greenlanders, a mafia-styled street gang that sprung out of the armed militant groups. Militant groups are recognized for ritualistic practices and being tools for political violence. Many believe David-West would have escaped if not for the social media pressure on law enforcement.
Another long-forgotten victim of gender-based violence is Angela Ihentuge, a seven-month-old expectant woman who was murdered by suspected ritualists in 2003. . Her family found her remains on the bush path leading to the village around Ehime Mbano. She was found nude. Her private parts expertly cropped out, her right breast cut off, her right toes cut off, her right eye removed, her right index finger cut off, and her tongue cut from the mouth. The foetus was also removed from her womb.
Her family reported the issue to the Police, and they did nothing. Angela was believed to have gone out with her husband in the evening she disappeared, but he denied this when he was interrogated by the police.
It was towards the 2003 general election, and Angela got murdered and her parts harvested for election rituals.
The government did their best to silence the story. The journalist investigating the murder, Ibanga Isine, was threatened and attempts made to take his life. The killers of Angela are still walking freely.
Where do we go from here?
Following a hot chase for Frank Akpan on social media, said allegedly he confessed his crime to his local government chairperson who let him go without involving the police.
A heart-wrenching Facebook Live recorded video visit to the place where Iniobong Umoren’s body was found revealed school children’s books, female shoes, NYSC boots, bones and a gravesite behind the house. It looks likeAkpan ran a thriving human parts harvesting business, and girls and women are his targets. The police in their press address, today, say that the holes are for planting yams.
The police have refuted the reports online that Akpan is now dead, that he killed himself while in police custody by presenting him today. Others reports have also claimed he is mentioning names of his clients and it includes politicians, business executives and religious leaders. It is not uncommon for persons accused of ritual murder to die mysteriously in prison.
Nigerians are accusing the murderer, Akpan of having police protection and collaborators in high places. All over the country, people are demanding justice for #HinnyUmoren, whose life brutally claimed.
Conclusion
Ritual murders have continued unchecked in the country. People pray not to encounter ritual killers as they set about their businesses. Girls are advised from an early age to shun the advances of unfamiliar men. Iniobong Umoren was only looking for difficult employment to find in a country like Nigeria. She informed friends and family of her whereabouts; she tried screaming for help. But nothing could save her. She is about to become another statistic. But we have to enlighten our people that taking the life of another for rituals cannot be normalized. Gender-based violence cannot continue to go unchecked.
