It’s now becoming a taboo to offer somebody a handshake in Sokoto! If you dare do it, one of two things may happen—it’s either some minutes later you become the direct opposite of a hermaphrodite or risk the angst of irate mobs in search of genital thieves. The menace of missing genitals that engulfed many parts of the country in the 1970’s is gradually rearing its head in the Sultanate Capital. Report Weekly Trust’s correspondents.

Another theory put forward for the menace is that it is an aspect of sorcery, which the newly initiated members may be required to test its workability through causing human private parts to disappear.

In the last two weeks, handshake in Sokoto metropolis has become scaring as people choose those to shake hands with for fear of losing their private parts. Ironically, handshake which is very common in any predominant Islamic society has now become a plague in Sokoto as those who complain of “losing” their genitals attribute it to shaking hands with strangers. Almost every police station in Sokoto metropolis has been recording cases of genital disappearance on daily basis.
The Unguwar Rogo Police Station is believed to be receiving the highest cases of missing genitals. A police source at the Unguwar Rogo station told Weekly Trust that although cases of stealing of manhood is common, there has never been any case of missing female genitals. According to him, all the cases recorded have been withdrawn because they later discovered the missing genitals returned to the owners but sometimes the police take the victims to the hospital for proper medical check up to ascertain the functionality of the alleged stolen genital.
Weekly Trust witnessed three cases at the Gwiwa and Kwanni Police Stations. Last Sunday between 8:30pm and 9:30pm, two cases of stolen genitals were reported at the Gwiwa Police Station but both cases were discharged because the alleged stolen private parts were discovered to be intact.
When Weekly Trust visited Kwanni police station both the suspect and the complainant were at the station. The policemen on duty refused to allow our reporter to interview them and referred him to the headquarters to meet the Police Public Relations Officer. But the PPRO, ASP Mohammed Umar simply dismissed the rampant cases of alleged missing private parts as hollow. “It is not true and I say it again. it is not true,” he said. Umar therefore called on those raising such complaints to desist because “we will soon start charging them to court for character defamation”.
In spite of the threats from the police that those who claim to have their private parts stolen will henceforth be taken to court, the scare is gaining momentum as each day records cases of alleged missing genitals.
Weekly Trust sampled public opinion and most of those interviewed believed the scare is real. People were increasingly afraid to shake hands with the other persons even after hearing ‘Salamun Alaikum,’ meaning ‘may peace be unto you’.
Malam Samaila, a newspaper vendor, described the act as social misdemeanour which the perpetrators might have engaged in to achieve some purpose. He said “though the issue is a very serious social problem, it does not make the spiritualists to gain anything from the act.”
Labaran Abubakar, a civil servant with Sokoto North local government said the issue is very frightening and that only prayers can save the situation. He said some people view it as the work of evil jinn who direct people to commit it either willingly or otherwise.
However, Ibrahim Aliyu, another civil servant, viewed it differently as according to him, the act tarnishes the good image of Islam “because it prevents people from practicing one of the teachings of the Holy Prophet, that is, handshake.” He said the fear, which the practice of manhood theft has instilled in people, has also created mistrust among the Muslim Ummah. According to him, it has happened to his younger brother and the boy could not regain erection until after two days.
Malam Hassan of Rungumi area said he does not see any reason why people should engage in the act “because it is certain the vanished genital will come back”.
An Islamic preacher Malam Bashir Mainiyo described it as a fetish act that would earn the wrath of God for its perpetrators. He contended that “the theft of genitals or causing it to disappear as it happens daily in Sokoto, is not only creating mistrust among Muslims by way of hand shake, it also causes serious damage to the religion of Islam as people are now even afraid to join congregational prayers”. Mainiyo therefore advised Muslims to have firm belief in God and not to entertain any fear as God ordains whatever happens to them. He urged Muslims to always recite the prescribed verses of the Qur’an against evil and nothing would happen to them.
A lecturer in the sociology department of Usman Danfodiyo University Sokoto Malam Usman Abdulkadir, who traced the practice to the early 1970s, said those who engage in the act are virtually gaining nothing from it. He said they only put their victims into fear and anxiety thereby creating social instability, conflict and anarchy in the society. Abdulkadir said the underlining question is “what do such spiritualists stand to gain socially and economically by causing the human private part to disappear and only to come back thereafter?”
He said there is no established reason for such act like cultism, which is purely practiced for economic or political reasons. He, however, said the social implication of the act is that it is eroding societal values and at the same time making the Muslim Ummah to lose one important aspect of their religion, that is, handshake.
Another theory put forward for the menace is that it is an aspect of sorcery, which the newly initiated members may be required to test its workability through causing human private parts to disappear.
Whether reasons are deduced from this infamous act, there are always two victims to it, the complainant and the suspect. At the center of every case is the suspect who in all cases receives the beating of his life. On Monday last week, at the Gawon Nama area in Sokoto, a suspected private parts thief was beaten to a coma, while at the Diplomat Area near Rijiya a mob had a field day pouncing on a victim of the scare.
In one of such cases, an Igbo man who claimed his private part was stolen was asked to call in his wife so that she could confirm whether his manhood was still functioning or not. Again, at the Ahmed Bello Way there was a case of a young boy who claimed a man just passed by him and touched him and when he touched his private part it was gone.
However, in all these cases, the victims always confirm that the alleged stolen genitals return later but in some cases different from what they had before. In one such cases, a victim confirmed that the genital returned to him was bigger than his original manhood.
At the Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, (UDUTH) Sokoto, Weekly Trust talked to some nurses who confirmed receiving such cases but none was scientifically proved to be true. A Senior Registrar heading the Urology Department, Dr. Ngwobia Agwu said “it is all a matter of fabrication.” Agwu told Weekly Trust that “any stolen or disappeared penis with regard to the rumours going round the city of Sokoto cannot be scientifically proved and since you cannot prove it scientifically, then it is not true”.
According to him, “Africans so much believe in superstition and witchcraft and some of these things are responsible for these types of beliefs”. The Urology doctor said there are instances when a man could lose his private part either through accident or cut but not through a handshake.
He confirmed that there are many ways of finding out whether a man has lost his manhood and one of the ways was through hormonal test and the use of electrical machines in the developed world to ascertain the functionality of a private part. Agwu urged the scare-mongers to visit the hospital for scientific test. He said he was yet to receive any of such cases.
How then did this missing private parts scare hit Sokoto and gradually became a household fear which even forced some married women to prevent their husbands from going out?.
There are those who attributed it to politicians who in their quest for power can do anything to get power. But the Sokoto state commissioner of police, Alhaji Saidu Daya has already issued a statement calling on the public to stop linking this act to political parties or politicians adding that anybody caught spreading such rumours would face the wrath of the law.
According to him, the alleged stolen genital scare has been causing psychological fear among residents and that the police would not spare anyone caught disrupting the peace of Sokoto state.
Until the private part disappearance is scientifically proved to be true, it will still remain a scare but the way it is spreading like wildfire, it may be causing social and emotional instability in every home in Sokoto.