By George OPARA
The Rivers State chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) has dismissed claims that a person’s sex organ or any other body organ can be stolen through physical or spiritual means as false and misleading.
The Rivers NMA was reacting to a viral video in which Mr. Daso Ogan was allegedly beaten, physically assaulted, and detained by the police over claims that he had “magically” stolen another man’s sex organ in Igwuruta Community, Ikwerre council area of the state on Monday, June 22, 2026.
In a statement on Thursday, June 25, 2026, the Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State NMA, Dr. Siene Orogun, stated, “that a handshake or physical touch cannot cause the disappearance, shrinking, or dysfunction of a man’s sex organ or any other part of the body”.
Dr. Orogun, who is also a Public Health Physician at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), explained that no biological mechanism exists to support such claims.
He said, “However, the experience of it feeling real is a recognized medical condition. It is called Koro Syndrome (Genital Retraction Syndrome), a documented psychiatric disorder in which a person genuinely believes that their genitalia are shrinking or disappearing. Clinical examination always reveals no anatomical change.
“It triggers fear and physical responses in a person who believes his organ has been taken by spiritual means”.
“Fear constricts blood vessels and reduces blood flow, causing the organ to appear or feel smaller. Anxiety suppresses erectile function, which may be perceived as a loss of function. There is also the cremasteric muscle reflex, which can cause real scrotal retraction during panic.
“Dissociation under stress can alter body perception in a way that feels completely convincing. The fear itself is doing the biological work. The organ remains intact.
“Koro is a mass psychogenic illness, and fear is socially contagious. Victims need calm clinical reassurance, psychiatric support, and psychoeducation. Communities urgently need public health education”.
The public health physician emphasized that no one can spiritually or physically steal an organ through touch.
“What is real is the psychiatric and physiological power of extreme fear, and that is entirely treatable”.
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