The incident which occurred on Friday, October 28th, 2022, drew condemnation from the former Minister of Information and Communications, Frank Nweke Jr, members of the public, human rights and women groups in Enugu State.

Nweke Jr, in a statement issued via Twitter on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, confirmed that the culprits have been arrested.

It was gathered that the 57 year-old widow was stripped naked, beaten and paraded round the village without clothes for daring to pick snails from a forest regarded as sacred in the village.

The mob, made up of youths, men and fellow women, beat her up and tied palm fronts round her naked waist and neck before parading her round the village.

The abusers also forced the widow to carry the basket of snails on her head while parading her around the entire community naked.

The South East Human Rights Situation Room has condemned in strongest terms, the dehumanizing abuse of the widow.

“The fact that a community in this 21st century can commit this heinous crime against their daughter, and wife all in the name of culture speaks volumes of their level of backwardness. Interestingly, this incident is not the first time that such flagrant desecration of women was perpetuated in this same community.