Physicians say that individuals who have been accusing people of making their penis to disappear might be suffering from what is known as Koro Syndrome. It is also known as Shrinking Penis Syndrome.
Experts say that Koro epidemics of panic anxiety due to widespread fears of losing one’s genitals, procreative ability, and even one’s life, are triggered by rumors of genital disappearance supposedly caused in China by female fox spirits, in Singapore and Thailand by mass poisoning, and in Africa by sorcery, usually in the context of socio-economic or political tension.
According to the journal of sexual medicine Sex Med, reduction of penile volume occurs physiologically due to vasoconstriction in cold temperature and intense anxiety, indicating that it has nothing to do with a third party interference.
The physicians spoke against the backdrop of disturbance of public peace that has engulfed some parts of the country in the past few months.
States such as Nasarawa and Cross River have witnessed unproved allegations by men who claimed that their manhood had disappeared, only for physicians to counter their claims after due medical examinations.
This is even as the situation has become worrisome in the Federal Capital Territory where victims of such spurious accusations have been lynched, beaten to a stupor or had their property damaged irretrievably by mobs.
The cases, as embarrassing as they are, are legion. On October 7, a WhatsApp user shared a video of a middle-aged man being mobbed for allegedly stealing another man’s genitals at the Abacha Road axis of Mararaba, an outskirt of Abuja.
Upon further interrogation, one man who gave his name only as Taiwo claimed to have witnessed the incident and recorded the video, saying the alleged manhood thief returned what he stole due to the fear that he would be lynched if he refused to do so.
“The mob decided not to take him to the Police station because he might not return the manhood he stole and they don’t trust the Police,” he said.
The police later intervened and reported that the alleged victim’s sex organ was functioning, as confirmed by medical experts at a nearby government hospital.
Similarly, on the same day, at Sharp Corner Bus Stop, Mararaba, one person accused somebody of stealing his genitals. As usual, the crowd pounced on the accused and almost lynched him.
The police came to his rescue. It was later discovered that the young man had raised a false alarm. But before then, the harm had been done. The accused man had been badly injured and his car set ablaze.
Scenarios like the above have become common within the Federal Capital Territory and its environs, where jungle justice dispensers apprehend and attack individuals for allegedly stealing genitals.
From Lugbe to Bwari, Gwagwalada to Nyanya and elsewhere, there is hardly a day without FCT residents being served yet another sordid dose of mob action over alleged missing genitals.
Many male residents of the territory now move around with chunks of charcoal and alligator pepper said to be antidotes to the powers of genital thieves.
The situation has become so problematic that the FCT Police Command have so far arrested and charged 14 men to court for false alarms leading to public peace disturbance.
Within a week, several mob actions were carried out against more than 12 accused persons in the FCT alone.
The FCT Commissioner of Police, Haruna Garba, said when the false alarmists were taken to the hospital for evaluation, medical tests conducted on them revealed that their male organs were intact and also very much active.
It appears that the disturbing allegation of missing genitals are a seasonal wave that blows across the country, the FCT being its current stop though some states such as Cross River have had their share of the unusual claims.
It is probably making a stop from neighbouring Nasarawa State, where the menace peaked in August.
On September 23, 2023, the police in Nasarawa State had to issue a statement warning residents against raising false alarms or perpetrating mob action against suspected genital thieves.
Like the case in the FCT, the police said that medical examinations conducted on persons who had claimed genital disappearance in Nasarawa Eggon, Obi, Lafia and Keffi Local Government Areas proved all the allegation false.
Again, in September, the Cross River State Government had also released a statement debunking rumours of missing male genitals in the Calabar metropolis and its environs.
Depression, anxiety cause of false claims -Physician
In 2020, Dr Ninyo Omidiji, a medical doctor with the Benue State University Teaching Hospital, told a national daily that people who claim that their genitals were stolen might be suffering from depression or anxiety.
“Medicine is science and anything that science cannot prove empirically or methodologically does not exist,” he said.
Some medical experts say people who raise false alarms about the disappearance of their sex organs might be suffering from Koro Syndrome.
According to the National Institutes of Health, the koro syndrome is a psychiatric disorder characterized by acute anxiety and a deep-seated fear of shrinkage of the penis and its ultimate retraction into the abdomen, the result of which is fatal.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information, which provides access to biomedical and genomic information, also defines Koro syndrome as being characterised by a person’s acute anxiety attacks.
“This is due to their overwhelming belief that their sex organs are retracting and disappearing into their body and that this retraction is fatal, despite the lack of actual physical changes to these organs,” NCBI says.
It says the syndrome is a psychiatric disorder that has two classifications: an endemic, culture-related type epidemic in parts of East and Southeast Asia; and a sporadic and non-cultural type appearing throughout the rest of the world.
The definition and non-cultural type of the syndrome corroborates Omidiji’s position on the wave of allegations of missing genitals in the FCT and elsewhere.
However, there are people who still hold tight to the belief that ritualists indeed `steal` people’s genitals.
Many false alarmists even claim to have witnessed the restoration of missing genitals after the alleged perpetrators were apprehended.
