Police commanders say they will not investigate pant stealing as it is not a verifiable crime

NIGERIAN Police Force (NPF) commanders have said that they will not commence investigations into the current menace of the widespread stealing of women's pants and underwear for ritual purposes.

Over recent weeks, a new craze has hit Nigeria with ritualists stealing female underwear and using them for money rituals. Members of the public have taken to subjecting anyone caught to jungle justice in the form of punishment beatings but NPF spokesman Frank Mba, said cases involving pant stealing cannot be investigated because they are not empirically verifiable.

Mr Mba added:  “Stealing of underwear for whatsoever reason is a recent phenomenon. Before now, we had cases of rituals killings but we can’t investigate things that are not empirically verifiable except when there is convergence of the act like cases of murder or an attempt or related crimes

“We are indeed in trying times and it’s good to be positively ambitious but wanting to get rich quick with minimal skills, efforts and at a very short time is quite disturbing. We don’t investigate divination or morality except related acts that constitute a criminal offence.

“Drug and substance abuses are strong conscience suppressors that influence our youth into these wicked acts of fetish and ritual killings for get-rich-quick. While we’ll continue to fight the menace of drug abuse head-on as we want our youths to desist or be ready to bear the consequences.”