The ancient Alue-Do festival in Ozoro, Delta State, has drawn national outrage after videos surfaced showing women being stripped and sexually assaulted during the event, with the anger deepening further when a woman appeared in a separate video defending the attacks by arguing that the victims should have known to stay indoors. The footage, which circulated widely across social media between March 20 and 21, 2026, has prompted the Delta State government and federal authorities to order the arrest of suspects, with at least six individuals identified in connection with the assaults.
The videos that emerged from the festival showed scenes that left many Nigerians struggling to process what they were watching. Women were attacked, stripped of their clothing, and subjected to gang rape in what appeared to be open and brazen acts carried out without fear of consequence. Community leaders in Ozoro moved quickly to distance the festival from the violence, stating that the assaults are not part of the Alue-Do tradition. But for many observers, that distinction offered little comfort given that the attacks happened within the context of the event and appeared to follow a pattern familiar to those who have raised concerns about the festival in the past.
What intensified the public anger was the emergence of a video showing a woman responding to the assaults not with condemnation but with blame directed at the victims. In the clip, the woman argued that females in the community know the risks associated with the festival period and that those who failed to stay indoors brought the violence upon themselves. She framed the matter as one of personal responsibility rather than criminal behaviour, a position that was immediately and overwhelmingly rejected by Nigerians online….See More
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