Kayode Fasua
A middle-aged man, Ezagunu Henry Nnamdi, has appealed to the authorities for protection from some masqueraders in his community who are insisting that he must dance nakesd in the market.
Ezagulu, a businessman, told our correspondent that he was involved in fisticuffs with a masquerade in his Umueri Ugumer village in Anambra East Local Government area of Anambra State, claiming that he retaliated with a punch when the masquerade flogged him.
“I was going in the street on the fateful day when this masquerade came from nowhere and started flogging me. It was really painful and there was no one in sight to rescue me.
“So in self-defence, I gave him a jab on the nose and he fell down and started growling that I had committed sacrilege, thus attracting the attention of the masqueraders who were in charge of his costume,” Ezagunu recounted.
He said after appraising what had happened, the masqueraders said he should pay ransom consisting of four nanny goats, two bags of rice, two gallons of palm oil, a bowl of colanut and alligator pepper, two bowls of garden eggs and then, be prepared to dance naked in the market.
“Much as I’m prepared to pay the ransom, I cannot undertake the humiliation of dancing naked in the market, as it is a public disgrace of the highest order; and they have vowed that if I do not dance naked, they would pronounce death penalty on me, and I could be killed by any of their members,” he lamented.
Ezagulu thus called on the police authorities to intervene, so as to save his life, noting that he was in a hideout.
