Pant thieves caught in Enugu community

For two years, Umuiugbo Community in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State has been under a peculiar siege: terrorized by robbers who steal only female panties. Since early 2018, most women in the community have had to forego wearing underwear when they go to farms, markets, churches and other functions in their community. The constant re-occurrence of missing undies convinced them their personal clothing item were being used for sinister purposes and the realisation filled them with trepidation. Up until a few weeks ago, any woman visiting the community was better advised to embark on the journey without wearing panties. 

What was most worrisome was that no one person in Umuiugbo could explain how these most private of articles of clothing got missing, even from right inside their homes.

The disturbing development pushed the community to convoke an emergency meeting involving youths and elders on how to arrest the scourge. Rising from the meeting, they had written a petition to the Enugu State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Ahmad Abdulrahman who in turn ordered the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to commence an investigation which culminated in the arrest of three suspects on October 10, 2019 who turned out to be members of the community.

The ‘community Judases’ had escaped detection for so long because they employed an imbecile to do the dirty work. It was the retarded recruit who went round from house to house in Amufic and Umuiugbo to pick female panties while owners were away in their farms, church or market.

The gang was eventually busted due to the vigilance of youths in the community. Following the arrest of the imbecile at Okpato Village, his two other accomplices, were also picked up.

When eventually the true story came out, it confirmed the community’s worst fears: the syndicate was run by an anonymous Hausa man who was paying N30, 000 for each pant and using the undies for money rituals and to cast spells on the female owners.

Pant raiders unmasked

The prime suspect, Emmanuel Enumuanya, a 25-year-old welder, claimed they were a gang of five “pant raiders” who terrorised the community.

His story: “One Hausa man contacted me that he needed female pants which he wanted to use for money rituals and love charms that would enable him to make love with women in the community. One pant is sold for N30, 000. I contacted Udoka and he became my gang member and together we ransacked all the nooks and crannies of Umuiugbo for ladies’ pants.”

He confessed further: “We have been in this business since 2018 and we have successfully picked several panties. I have picked all my sisters and mother’s pants and supplied them to the Hausa man. He paid me N30, 000 for each one. We usually carried out our raid when the female members of the community had gone to the farm and left their underwear outside on the line to dry. We had operated in several other villages.”

The second suspect, Udoka Awolu, 25, a textile dealer, claimed he was lured into the fiendish business by money.

“Whenever I supplied panties to Emmanuel, usually from other villages, he paid me N10, 000,” he admitted. In other to keep the supply flow, he employed the imbecile whom he paid the paltry sum of N1, 000 per pant.

Nemesis caught up with them in October when SARS operatives and youths apprehended their retarded employee.

“I have confessed to the SARS operatives and they recovered over 10 pants that I had in my possession which I was about to supply to Emmanuel before my arrest,” Awolu stated.

Umuiugbo after the siege

Saturday Sun visited Umuiugbo Community and spoke with one of the youths in the community, Emeka Obi, who sketched the gloomy picture of how the rampant disappearance of undies had impacted on the community.

“This problem started in our community in 2018. It took some time before we knew because the victims initially found it difficult to say it, until it became unbearable and some women started crying that their pants were missing from where they spread them after washing. Some mothers also discovered that their underwear went missing in the house by the time they returned from farm.  The problem got to a point that some of our ladies did not wear panties again to farm or market, out of fear of being attacked because of their undies or simply because what they had had been stolen in the past months.”

He continued: “Our mothers and sisters cried to God for help and God answered their prayers. The arrest [of the imbecile] led to the arrest of two others. Now, the three suspects have been handed over to SARS operatives.

Obi concluded: “It was hell for women in our village this past two years.”

Meanwhile, Commissioner of Police Abdulrahman, who avowed that sanity has been restored in that community, confirmed that efforts are ongoing to apprehend the remaining two members of the gang still at large. The suspects, he said, will be charge to court as soon as detective wrapped up their investigations.

Credit: Daily Sun