By Ikenna Orioha
Some female students of Imo State University Teaching Hospital (IMSUTH), Umuna in Orlu Local Government Area, have raised alarm over an alleged sexual harassment by some boys in Owerre Ebeiri whom they assumed to be celebrating a cultural festival in the community.
The victims who narrated their ordeal in the hands of the violent Owerre Ebeiri boys to the media under anonymity, alleged that they were sexually harassed while coming back from school.
They recounted that the violent village boys carried fierce cutlasses which they used to harass them, as well as touched their sensitive organs including buttocks – even when they were decently dressed.
The students added that the village boys only spared them because the cyclist who carried they was very popular at the area and called on the authority to wade in, caution and sanction the perpetrators in order to guarantee the security of the female students in Orlu LGA.
They wondered how a decent cultural festival would permit the violation of morally decent female students who are strangers in the said community.
“For the purpose of security, I will not want my name in print. I’m a student of IMSUTH. I was on bike, coming back from school, properly dressed, some group of boys who carried fierce cutlasses, assumed to be celebrating a cultural festival in Owerre Ebeiri, stopped us and demanded money from me.
“I said I have no money. They started harassing me sexually, touching my sensitive organs especially my buttocks. They even told me that I was lucky to have escaped their randy haunting because they knew the bike rider who carried me. The fierce looking village boys warned that female students of IMSUTH should expect worse if we dare come out. They said it with full alacrity as though they are above the law or government.
“Two days ago, they harassed my female friends who are equally students of IMSUTH for no just cause. They even gave them money. They still harassed them and touched their sensitive bodies randomly.
“We did not like that mess. It must stop. We are calling on the authority to wade in, caution and sanction the perpetrators so that it would not repeat, as well as guarantee the safety of female students who have always been abused sexually”, the students lament.
