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Delta State Police Command arrested eleven additional suspects Saturday in connection with the sexual assault and molestation of women in Ozoro’s Oramudu Quarters during what authorities say was a deliberate exploitation of a fertility festival by criminal elements — bringing the total number of people in custody to fifteen within 48 hours of the incident first becoming public through viral video footage that prompted national outrage and a federal government directive for prosecution.
The Commissioner of Police, Aina Adesola, activated the command’s CP Special Assignment Team — a dedicated investigative unit — to conduct a forensic review of available video evidence and intelligence gathered from the community, leading directly to the identification and arrest of the eleven additional suspects. Those named in police records include Samson Atukpodo, Steven Ovie, Ugbevo Samson, Afoke Akporobaro, and Evidence Oguname, alongside six others whose identities the command has not yet publicly disclosed. They join Chief Omorede Sunday, identified as the event’s chief organizer and community head of the Oramudu Quarters, and four others arrested on Friday. No charges have been formally filed, and the cases remain at the investigative stage.
The police were unambiguous in how they framed the incident’s origin. Spokesperson Bright Edafe stated in his Saturday statement that preliminary findings indicated the attacks were “perpetrated by criminal elements who exploited the situation to engage in acts of sexual violence,” adding that the conduct was “in no way representative of any legitimate cultural practice.” Adesola “condemns these acts in totality,” Edafe said, and “reassures the public that the command remains resolute in its determination to ensure that all those involved are identified, arrested, and prosecuted in accordance with the law.”
The festival at the center of the incident has been formally identified as the Alue-Do Festival, an ancient fertility celebration traditionally observed by the Uruamudhu community within Ozoro Kingdom.
The leadership of Ozoro Kingdom issued a formal statement Saturday disputing how the event has been characterized across social media, where it was described in several widely shared posts as a “rape festival.” “The Alue-Do Festival is traditionally regarded as a festival of fertility,” the statement from President-General Odio Berkley Asiafa and Secretary-General Prince Obaro Egware said. “It is widely believed to be a cultural practice that brings blessings of children to individuals or couples experiencing difficulty in childbirth. As part of this long-standing tradition, certain symbolic practices are observed, including the act of playfully dragging and pouring sand on married individuals who are yet to have children, as a cultural expression believed to invoke fertility.”
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The community leadership stated that no incident of rape was recorded and that the violence documented in the viral videos represented a criminal distortion of the festival’s character by unnamed young persons who “misapplied” its cultural rituals “in a negative and unacceptable manner.”
The statement warned those spreading the characterization of the event as a “rape festival” to stop doing so, citing the risk of further violence against the community. That position does not contradict the police’s finding that criminal acts of sexual violence took place — both the kingdom’s statement and the police investigation agree that the assaults occurred and are indefensible. They diverge on whether those acts reflect the festival’s cultural purpose.
The federal government entered the case formally on Friday. Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim issued a directive calling for “a transparent, thorough, and accelerated investigation to ensure that all persons implicated are identified and brought to justice without delay,” while commending what she described as the Delta State Police Command’s swift initial response. The Minister’s statement was the first formal federal intervention in the case and marked the clearest indication yet that accountability was being monitored at a level above the state police command.
Human rights organizations and civil society groups that had called for urgent action following Friday’s viral videos acknowledged the speed of the police response while pressing for the investigation to extend to all participants identifiable from the footage — not only those already in custody.
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The videos, which captured the faces of numerous individuals involved in the attacks, have been described by legal analysts as providing an unusually strong evidence base for broadening the suspect pool.
The police command confirmed it continues to analyze the video material and urged any victims or witnesses who had not yet come forward to contact the command, with an assurance that all information provided would be treated confidentially.
The total of fifteen arrests within less than two full days of the incident entering public consciousness marks an unusually rapid law enforcement response to a sexual violence case in a rural community setting. Whether that pace is sustained through the charging and prosecution phases will be the measure by which civil society organizations have said they will evaluate the state’s actual commitment to accountability in the case.
No charges had been formally filed against any of the fifteen suspects as of Saturday evening. The Delta State government had not announced whether it was assigning a dedicated prosecution team to the matter, and no hearing date before a magistrate or high court had been confirmed. A request to the state’s Ministry of Justice for comment on prosecution timelines was not immediately responded to.
