The House of Representatives appeared to have fallen for a satire about the export of 7,000 penises from Nigeria to China.
The House on Thursday resolved to investigate the alleged ‘penis trafficking’ and illicit trade on human organs between Nigeria and China.
The resolution was sequel to a unanimous adoption of a motion by Rimamnde Kwewum (PDP-Taraba) and co-sponsored by Olajide Olatubosun (APC-Oyo) at plenary.
The allegation that Chinese authorities seized a cargo ship that sailed from Nigeria with 7,200 refrigerated penises was published on March 19 by World News Daily Report. It has been shared nearly 700 times on Facebook and reposted by many Nigerian online news sites.
The article surfaced about a year after fact checks debunked a different story from the same satirical website, whose slogan is “facts don’t matter”.
Moving the motion, Kwewum ignorantly reiterated that about two weeks ago, Chinese authorities seized a cargo ship that sailed from Nigeria with 7,200 refrigerated penises.
According to him, they were found in 36 boxes labelled as plantain on the ship that docked at the Shanghai port called Red Market.
He said perpetrators of the illicit trade generated between US$600 million and US$1.2 billion profit annually.
The lawmaker recalled that in 1987, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that the illegal trade violated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
He said, “Cognisant that the international community has made efforts to curb the menace of Red Market, such as the Istanbul Declaration urging professionals to put an end to the unethical actions where organs of unfortunate victims of economic migrants and human trafficking in Europe and the Middle East are ripped off, thereby constituting a gross abuse of the rights to life of those Nigerians.
“Convinced that if nothing is done to curb this criminal act, more criminals will set up shops dealing in human organs in Nigeria, taking advantage of the insecurity in the country.”
“The media was awash a few years ago with horrifying stories of the harvest of organs of Nigerians and other Africans stranded in Libya for sale in Europe, the Middle East, America and China.
“Aware that the increasing cases of missing persons, ritual killings and trafficking of persons out of the country may be linked to the Red Market which can be attributed to the trafficking of young men and women who end up being victims of organ harvesting;
“Also aware that the increased banditry, kidnappings and spiralling violence in several parts of the country today make those parts of the country vulnerable and provide safe havens and ready supply channels for the illicit activities.”
Kwewum said harvest of organs could only be done by medical surgeons with the aid of rogue public officials.
The House mandated its Committees on Human Rights and National Security and Intelligence to investigate the development.
Deputy Speaker Ahmed Wase, who presided over the session, mandated the committees to report back within 10 weeks for further legislative action.
He said the Chinese General Administration of Customs had alerted that an increasingly large number of armed groups in Africa used organs, which were harvested in unsanitary conditions, to finance their nefarious activities.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.