Female National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, Jennifer Edema Elohor, has broken her silence after a horrifying ordeal in which she was brutally assaulted, stripped, and humiliated by armed vigilantes in Anambra State.
The attackers, operatives of Operation Udo Ga-Achi, popularly known as the Agunechemba Vigilante Group, reportedly stormed the lodge housing NYSC members on July 23, 2025, accusing them of internet fraud.
Speaking about the ordeal, Jennifer Edema said:
“This incident happened on the 23rd of July about 5 p.m. My co-corper and I were just in our corper lodge charging our phones, minding our business. All of a sudden, we heard a knock on the gate. It was a three-storey building with many flats, so we thought it was our neighbors. But when the knocking became more aggressive, I went to check if it was our door being knocked. Before I got there, the door had already been kicked — if it had made one more step, the gate would have hit me.
“I saw a masked man with a gun. He wasn’t wearing a uniform or any form of identification. At first, I was scared, thinking it was an armed robber until I heard him say, ‘All of you, outside!’
She explained that despite informing the vigilantes that they were corps members and even showing their NYSC identification cards, the attackers ignored them:
“We were like, ‘All of us here are corps members.’ My colleagues also came out and I told them that he didn’t introduce himself or say where he was from. My colleagues showed him our ID cards, but they ignored us and forced us into our rooms, packing our laptops, phones, and other belongings. They were very aggressive, saying things like, ‘What kind of stupid people are we, what are we doing with laptops if not doing Yahoo?”
Jennifer added; “When we got downstairs, we saw their vehicle and later discovered they were Anambra vigilantes because that was what was written on the vehicle. I said, even if you want us to go with you, you should at least call someone — either our LGI or the proprietress — because you didn’t introduce yourself. That’s when they started beating us.
“They threatened that if we tried to call anyone, they would smash our phones on the floor. They beat me, tore my clothes, and even hit some of my colleagues with iron rods when they pleaded on my behalf. I said, ‘Let me at least change before following you,’ but they dragged me and forced my neck into the vehicle. They called me different names — ashawo, prostitute — saying, ‘You think you have a mouth? We will let you know there is nobody who can do that. If you even talk too much, we are going to shoot and throw your dead body in the bush. No one is going to say anything about it.’”