Sunday Ebubechukwu shook hands with a certain Anayo in Enugu State, Southeast of Nigeria, and felt an “instant weakness” in his genital region.

His penis, he would claim moments later, had begun to malfunction, much to his dismay. He felt what he referred to as a shrinkage of his penis or an outright vanishing of the organ.

He raised an alarm and before you could say “manhood”, Anayo had been beaten to a pulp by passersby, sympathizers and onlookers alike.

The police on duty (Guardian) AFP

Police spokesperson in Enugu, Ebere Amaraizu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that “the Command, through its operatives of Ogui Division, is unraveling the mystery surrounding an alleged complaint of feeling of weakness of a male genital organ of a man shortly after his handshake with another man in Enugu.”

The beating of his life

Amaraizu has also disclosed that Anayo the suspect, is physically challenged and that he could have been beaten to death if police personnel didn’t arrive the scene to rescue him.

“Sunday Ebubechukwu on that fateful day raised an alarm which attracted sympathizers to the scene at Obiagu on the ground that someone whom he allegedly had handshake with may have caused the instant weakness of his manhood. Thereby causing his manhood to dysfunction instantly,” Amaraizu continued.

Hooded police officers on a busy Nigerian street (AFP) AFP

“It was however gathered that the alarm he raised prompted sympathizers around to descend heavily on the alleged suspect, Anayo.

“The suspect was said to be receiving the beating of his life before police operatives from Ogui Division promptly intervened and rescued him,’’ he said.

A nation of the fetish and the religious

Stories bordering on disappearing private parts and severing of body parts for ritual and fetish purposes are quite common in Nigeria.

The usually rowdy Oshodi is deserted during the 2019 elections. Killings for ritual purposes are common in Nigeria's urban centers (Pulse)

On February 3, 1999, a certain Clifford Orji was arrested after his hideout full of body parts; which he devoured with relish, was discovered in the crowded Oshodi/Airport Road area of Lagos.

Mobs have also descended on suspected ritualists in all parts of Nigeria, a nation almost evenly split between a predominantly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north.