Footage showing women being chased, stripped and sexually assaulted by groups of men during an annual festival in southern Nigeria has sparked widespread international condemnation, prompted a police investigation and led to multiple arrests.
The videos, recorded during the Alue-Do fertility festival in Ozoro, Delta State, have been viewed millions of times across Facebook, Instagram and X, with many viewers expressing shock at the scale and openness of the violence. Multiple clips show women being pursued through crowded streets in broad daylight before being surrounded by groups of men who tear at their clothing while bystanders film the scenes. Several of the women targeted are believed to be students from a nearby university, a number of whom have since been hospitalised.
One victim, Ezeugo Ijeoma Rosemary, a student, told authorities she was attacked moments after arriving in the area. “Immediately I came down, they started shouting ‘hold her, hold her, that’s a woman’, and they swooped on me like bees,” she said. “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 said she was eventually rescued by a bystander but that her phone was stolen. She has not returned to school since the attack and says she is still dealing with pain and trauma.
Delta State police confirmed the arrest of several suspects, including a community leader and four young men identified in the viral footage. Delta Police Commissioner Aina Adesola ordered suspects to be transferred immediately to the State Criminal Investigation Department. Spokesman Bright Edafe confirmed those involved would face charges and urged victims and witnesses to come forward, noting that no formal rape complaints had been filed at the time of his statement. As the investigation widened, the number of people in custody rose to more than a dozen.
Authorities described the violence as the work of “criminal elements” who had hijacked the event — a framing that local community leaders echoed. In a statement, they insisted the Alue-Do festival was a fertility ritual involving symbolic acts such as dragging and pouring sand on individuals, intended to invoke blessings for couples struggling to conceive. They maintained that claims of widespread sexual assault were “false and misleading” and that no rape had been officially recorded, while acknowledging that some individuals may have acted “irresponsibly.”
That explanation has done little to dampen the backlash. Local reports suggest women were expected to remain indoors during parts of the festival, and that those who did not were actively targeted. For women’s rights advocates, the incident reflects a problem that extends well beyond a single event or a single community.
Rita Aiki, a gender rights advocate with the Women’s Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative, said: “This is not just about what happened in those videos. 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.” She added: “When people can do this in the open, and others treat it like spectacle, it goes beyond individual actions.”
Police say the investigation is ongoing and that further suspects may be identified as officers continue to work through video evidence and witness accounts.
