WARNING: GRAPHIC
Outrage has erupted after disturbing videos emerged from a festival in southern Nigeria, showing women being pursued, disrobed, and sexually assaulted by groups of men in broad daylight.
The videos, recorded during the annual Alue-Do fertility festival in Ozoro, Delta State, have triggered a police inquiry, leading to several arrests. Authorities have confirmed that multiple suspects are in custody.
The shocking footage has drawn global condemnation, with many online dubbing the event a “rape festival,” emphasizing the severity of the incidents captured.
Social media clips display women fleeing through packed streets, pursued by men. Once caught, the women are encircled, their clothing ripped away as they are groped and attacked, while onlookers record the scene, some even cheering.
This was not an isolated event.
Numerous videos depict similar assaults occurring in various locations during the festival, involving large groups of men and even young boys. Many victims, thought to be female students from a nearby university, have reportedly been hospitalized.
The widespread violence and the number of assailants have quickly turned this incident into a national and international crisis, prompting a strong response from authorities.
Delta State police have confirmed the arrest of multiple individuals connected to the attacks, including a community leader and four young men identified in viral videos. Investigations remain ongoing.
State police spokesperson Bright Edafe stated that those involved face charges, and Delta Police Commissioner Aina Adesola has ordered the immediate transfer of suspects to the State Criminal Investigation Department.
“The Commissioner of Police has instructed that the suspects be transferred to the State CID without delay. The Commissioner is committed to ensuring that anyone involved will be arrested and brought to justice,” Edafe said.
Edafe described the events as sexual assault and public humiliation, noting the absence of formal rape complaints at that time and urging victims and witnesses to provide information.
In the following days, the number of arrested suspects increased to more than a dozen, as investigators analyzed videos and witness statements. Police indicated that arrests were part of a targeted investigation and that additional suspects might be identified as inquiries continue.
While arrests were underway, authorities began shaping the narrative of the incident. The police initially described the attacks as orchestrated by “criminal elements” who hijacked the festival, attempting to dissociate the violence from the cultural event.
Local community leaders further denied any occurrence of rape, claiming the festival was “misinterpreted.”
In a statement, they characterized the Alue-Do festival as a fertility ritual, where symbolic acts like dragging and pouring sand on individuals traditionally aim to bless couples struggling with conception.
They asserted that widespread sexual violence claims were “false and misleading,” emphasizing that no official rape reports had been filed despite circulating videos.
The leaders acknowledged that some individuals may have behaved “irresponsibly” but stressed that such actions were not part of the tradition and should not represent the festival.
This explanation has done little to quell the backlash. Social media reactions have been swift and intense.
Videos of the assaults have been viewed millions of times on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter), leaving many viewers appalled not only by the overt violence but also by its occurrence in broad daylight without intervention.
Various videos showed groups of men laughing and filming as they closed in on victims. In one clip, a young woman is seen crying and clutching her torn clothes while being attacked by men surrounding her.
One victim, Ezeugo Ijeoma Rosemary, a student, reported she was assaulted moments after arriving in the area by bike.
“Immediately I came down, they started shouting ‘hold her, hold her, that’s a woman’, and they swooped on me like bees,” she recounted.
“A large crowd started pulling my clothes until they stripped me naked. They were pulling my breasts and touching my whole body … I was shouting for help.”
She mentioned she was eventually rescued by a bystander, but her phone was taken. She is still coping with the trauma and has not returned to school since the incident.
The visibility of the attacks transformed the narrative from isolated incidents to a disturbing pattern of collective violence in public spaces by a large group of men.
Local reports suggest women were advised to remain indoors during parts of the festival, with non-compliance leading to public targeting.
This context suggests the footage reflects a response to an environment actively challenging women’s presence in public, sometimes violently.
Women’s rights advocates argue that the incident highlights an underlying problem extending beyond a single event.
“This is not just about what happened in those videos,” said Rita Aiki, a gender rights advocate with the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA).
“It’s about the conditions that make it possible for this kind of violence to happen in public, with so many people watching and no one stepping in.”
For many, the reaction to the attacks has been as unsettling as the violence itself.
“It tells you something about what is being normalized in a given society,” Aiki said.
“When people can do this in the open, and others treat it like spectacle, it goes beyond individual actions.”
The incident has raised renewed concerns about women’s safety in public spaces, especially during large gatherings where accountability may be lacking.
While authorities emphasize that the festival does not condone violence, critics argue that separating the tradition from the incident does little to explain how such attacks could occur openly and on such a large scale.
