It is tragic that in the week that we’re celebrating International Women’s Day, a young woman, Oluwabamise Ayanwole, an innocent Nigerian citizen has been gruesomely murdered inside a Lagos State BRT bus, on her way home, and her private parts removed, apparently for ritual purposes.

"I hope I'm safe", she said in a video she shared on her phone where she was seen alive while in the mass transit bus, expressing fears.

We now know she was in danger.

Almost every other day, there is one news or the other of women being killed or kidnapped in the course of their daily routine. We remember vividly the case of Miss. Iniobong Umoren was brutally murdered while she was seeking employment. We also note that for every story that gets to the limelight, there are at least ten other women whose death or kidnap has gone unreported. We must change the narrative. 

Sign this petition calling on the Lagos State Government and the Lagos state commissioner of Police Abiodun Alabi to announce and prosecute everyone involved in this gruesome murder, no matter how highly placed, and unravel the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate demise of Ms. Bamise and prosecute everyone involved in this gruesome murder, no matter how highly placed.

We want our law enforcement systems to be proactive by putting in place the following demands and measures: 

The Lagos State Government must, as a matter of urgency, install CCTC or dashboard cameras on all the BRT buses and the recently introduced Lagos taxi cars and Ubers & Bolt.

Every Nigerian woman deserves to live her life to the fullest. In recent years, the life of an average Nigerian citizen has become almost worthless in the hands of those whose primary duty is the protection of life and property.

We also demand a proactive investigation into the ritual killings in Lagos State and entire South-Western Nigeria. The government must not wait for the next unfortunate victim to die before it will initiate investigations into this unwholesome practice that has taken us back to the dark days of human rituals.

Nigerians are unable to commute interstate or intrastate without nursing the morbid fear of being kidnapped, raped, or killed. The situation is particularly bad for our women who are often left defenseless in the face of marauding get rich quick ritualists now littered all over our society.

Our women should no longer be left at the mercy of kidnappers, ritualists, murderers, bandits, etc.

#JusticeForBamise

No to Ritualkillings