An 18-year-old boy identified simply as Great has been hospitalised after being tortured by suspected louts for allegedly stealing underwear at Abule Odan-Era in the Ojo area of Lagos State.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the incident occurred on Monday, August 18.

Speaking to our correspondent on Monday, Great’s aunt, who identified herself simply as Philomena, said she was at home when some men brought him with his face visibly swollen.

She explained that the men, who occupy a base in the community known as New Era, accused him of stealing a pair of boxers while they also demanded she follow them to the spot.

According to her, the men asked her to pay N30,000 for the boxers and an extra N20,000 fine. She added that the men later tortured her son after she paid the money.

“Some men brought him home with a swollen face, accusing him of stealing a pair of boxers from a clothesline. The men, who claimed to secure the community, demanded I follow them to their base, where they forced me to pay N30,000 for the boxers and later insisted on an additional N50,000 fine. After pleading, they reduced it to N20,000.

“Before I left to source the N20,000, the men said they wanted to perform a sacrifice on him, and they asked me to sign an undertaking that I would take him out of the community once they released him. A family friend later lent me the money, and I gave it to them, making it N50,000. It was after this that they took my son to their base and tortured him while recording him in the process,” she narrated.

In a video sent to our correspondent, Great was blindfolded with his hands and legs tied while two men flogged him.

Speaking to our correspondent over the phone, Great denied committing the act.

He said, “I was going through a shortcut leading to Adele, and along it was an open compound, and they spread their clothes there. So, a man approached me and asked why I took boxers from their line. His brother joined him, and they began raising their voices. Another person who joined them began to slap me. They later asked me to take them to my aunt’s place.

When we got there, they told my aunt to follow them and bail me out with money. But before she came, they already gave me a boxer to hold and started to take pictures of me.”

A rights activist and Programme Officer, Centre for Positive Health Organisation, Sunday Osofisan, told our correspondent on Monday that the perpetrators fled the community after the video of the torture leaked to the public.

“According to reports, that is how they have always done it, and that they have been doing it for so many people, and according to the community leader, they are not indigenes, but they always converge on their base every Sunday,” he added.

Nine suspects were, however, said to have been arrested on Friday in connection with the incident and detained at the Area K police command.

The community leader, Fatai Raheem, in a chat with PUNCH Metro, said the perpetrators were identified among the arrested suspects but later released.

He said, “I took the boy to the station on Saturday, and they asked him who among them tortured him, and he pointed out the two perpetrators. The two were detained while others were granted bail. The police said we should come back on Monday, but I was surprised that they were released on Sunday. The men even did a video jubilating over their release from police custody.”

In a document obtained by our correspondent, the community leader had petitioned the Area K police command, condemning the act and dissociating the leadership of the town from it. He added that people had been complaining about them in the community.

The founder, Harmony Advocacy Network, Harmony Tachie, said Great had been moved out of the community due to the threat.

“The boy has been taken away from the community since they asked her mother to do so, with a threat. The perpetrators should be prosecuted for the act so that others can learn from it. That is jungle justice. If at all he stole boxers, why didn’t they hand him over to the police? Imagine if he had died in the process, they would have run away,” she disclosed.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, did not pick up the calls made to his telephone line. A text message sent to him had yet to be replied to as of the time this report was filed. (The PUNCH)