Residents of Jos, the Plateau State capital are scared stiff by reports of shrinking male phalluses after their owners shook the hands of virtual stringers asking for directions. The latest incident which occurred two days ago at Tudun Wada involved an okada owner who claimed his manhood disappeared and fingered four suspects.

Following his alarm, the four were arrested by the police for interrogation. Another incident which happened Thursday in Miango village near the state capital led to the abrupt closure of the market at about 4.30 p.m. instead of the closing time of about 7 p.m. The New Nigerian Weekly gathered that two young men raised an alarm in the market after embracing two strangers who wanted to know how they would get to their destinations, which turned out to be fictitious. One of the young men who said he felt his penis shrink immediately said he zipped down his trouser front to check and saw that his sex organ had shrank considerably. In the confusion, the market was closed as people took to their heels, but a group of men was able to get hold of the suspects.

The New Nigerian Weekly gathered from an eye-witness that it took the intervention of the local chief to prevent the two men from being lynched. They in turn accepted to return the organ. These incidents are just two out of several reported in the last couple of weeks in Jos and its environs. Two of those arrested claimed to be labourers lured by a herbalist who promised to make them millionaires if they brought him a certain number of male sex organs. The Police Public Relations Officer in Jos, Aliyu Yusuf who confirmed that the police had received reports of missing male sex organs, said the department was investigating the matter. He said some of those who claimed that their sex organs were missing have been sent to hospitals to have their claims authenticated.

As a result of the incident, people no longer stop to give directions or shake strangers’ hands or answer people who demand to know the time of day or night. It is not uncommon to men clutching at their sex organs in the street. Meanwhile, many innocent persons may have fallen victims of the scare. The latest is a 47 year old worker with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) who was badly hurt by his assailants and is critically ill at the University Teaching Hospital (JUTH). The victim whose arm was broken and had deep cuts in his head and face said he had only inquired about the owner of a generator set when someone raised an alarm that his manhood had disappeared and he was blamed for it.

According to the victim who said he had recently been transferred from Lagos to Jos and only just returned from leave to find his apartment flooded and electronics damaged. He said he was trying to find a repairer when he was assaulted. The victim who spoke with great difficulty said that while walking up Ahmadu Bello Way and looking for a repairer, he enquired about the owner of a generator sets and before he knew it, a man cried out that his manhood had disappeared and people pounced on him. The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Daniel Iya said two men had come to the hospital to claim that their organs were “stolen” but this could not be substantiated medically. “We have received allegations from two people who said something has gone wrong with their parts.

Clinical examination has not been able to prove this,” said Iya. “What is however worrisome is that someone has been injured on the basis of the allegation,” he said, adding that more innocent people may be hurt. The chief medical director explained that a penis that is not erect can assume any size and as such, the smallness of the organ is not a proof of its disappearance. Another man was earlier in the day saved by the police from being lynched by people because a boy accused him of stealing his sex organ. As at the time the New Nigerian Weekly visited the Anglo Jos Police Station where he was being held, the accusers had dispersed but the suspect apparently had been badly beaten up.

A Road Safety officer in another part of Jos raised an alarm of his missing organ, but his claim could not be proved . Police Public Relations Officer, Aliyu Yusuf said that the incidents were being investigated but stressed that the case is very delicate.

...The men who ordain and supervise this show of shame, this tragic charade, are frightened by the word, the power of ideas, the power of the pen...They are so scared of the power of the word, that they do not read. And that is their funeral.