A life is being destroyed. A young
girl is dying quietly in her own country. I mean where else should she reside,
if not her fatherland? She was born in Nigeria. Was she expected to relocate to
London/America to get her desired life?
This is where we need every human
right activist to STAND. Her face is OUT, it’s not a rumour, it’s not a ‘made
up story’… she is out there and ready to speak. This is no longer a paper work,
where you talk and say you are fighting for the helpless. This is when you are
needed. Please help Igbobi. She can’t be left alone like this. Too sad! Her
story after the cut.
Culled From Vanguard;
When the chair, Committee for the
Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, Delta State, Mr. Benefit Orugbo, called me on
phone, about a fortnight ago, and said that he had a spine chilling case of
human rights abuse in his hands, I did not understand the brutality of the
matter and almost ignored the issue.
However, it was not until Warri
Reporter, EGUFE YAFUGORHI, detailed to meet the victim at an agreed venue
reported his encounter with Igbobi Beauty Uzezi, an Air Police of the Nigerian
Air-force, NAF, with Personal Service Number, NAF10/25157F, that the reality
dawned on me.
Uzezi, who hails from Bayelsa
state, revealed that an Air-force officer (names withheld) drugged, raped and
infected her with a Sexually Transmitted Diseases, STD, and the said officer
detained and tortured her through proxies for daring to expose him and finally
got her dismissed from the Airforce.
The air-force officers she
complained to and sought help before the hammer fell on her, queried why she
chose to make trouble with the officer, pointing out that she was not the only
female personnel to pass through the ordeal.
They detained her in a cell with a
mad woman, chained her to the bed in the hospital, locked for several days
without food to force her to forgo justice.
She refused to surrender and was court marshaled after she threatened to
shoot one of the air-force officers used to intimidate her, who allegedly
wanted to disarm her.
The court marshal was a leeway for
those who want her thrown out of NAF, as the case was getting messier by then.
Systematically, they congested her with drugs and a physician diagnosed of
critical depression disorder, CBD, paving way for her final discharge.
Igbobi appeared dehumanized when
she spoke to Niger Delta Voice, NDV, and what ricocheted throughout the
interview was her cry for justice. This interview, first in the series of our
reports into and alleged Nigeria Air-force rape scandal is hair-raising. Will
she get justice?
Editor.
Tell us about your enlistment into
the Air Force
My name is Igbobi Beauty Uzezi. I
enlisted into the Nigerian Airforce August 18, 2010 when I was 18. My Personal
Service Number is NAF10/25157F with seniority of Air Craft Woman, ACW, in 19
February 2011. On 17 May, 2011, two months and 10 days after my passing out
from the Nigeria Air Force basic military training, Kaduna, I was posted to 335
Base Services Group, Kaduna as an Air Police. We reported March 7 2011.
How did your ordeal start?
On that May 17, 2011, at about
8.00 pm, I received a phone call from a strange number. From the conversation,
I discovered that the caller was one of our training instructors on general
service knowledge during our training (names withheld by NDV). He said I should come to the Protestant
Church inside the Nigerian Air Force Base, Kaduna.
With lots of conviction as our
former training instructor and his claim that he was in Kaduna for a special
assignment of which I do not know, I obliged his strange invitation. Getting to
the church, I saw him and another instructor, who also trained us, Sgt. Hossan
and my course mate, who he said gave him my phone number, ACM Bello and a woman
I do not recognize.
He said I should join them to the
Nigeria Defence Academy, NDA old site. I asked why I have to join them because
there was Kafachan crisis in Kaduna then. He said they were going to drop the
woman companion at the NDA old site and return.
He said he trained me and asked if
I was scared of being with him. He said I should not entertain any fear with my
course mate on the movement. I joined them out of sheer respect and having no
thought of any sinister motive.
At the point they ought to drop
the unknown woman, I heard Sgt Hossan tell the officer (instructor),”Oga, after
we train recruit finish, e no go do something for your godson?”
Opposite the place we supposedly
came was the Communicator Mess. At that point, I asked excused myself to
urinate, but before I left, I overheard him ordering two wines and barbecue
fish. I eased myself, came back and he gave me a glass of wine.
Drugged
I took the glass of wine, not
knowing he had drugged it for me. I was urging to return home because it was
late and there was crisis. We entered the vehicle and proceeding a little, they
dropped the woman. At the Air Force Base, Kaduna, I stayed behind the
Aeromedical Hospital, opposite a branch of Oceanic Bank, now Ecobank.
Approaching there, I said I want
to drop, but Sgt Hossan said they wanted to drop the instructor in his own
quarters before coming to drop me. From their discussion, I discovered Hossan
stays in Block B next to my Block C.
We proceeded further and Bello
dropped. At JD Quarters where the officer resides, they parked opposite his
apartment. He and Sgt Hossan came down discussing while I was inside the
vehicle.
The instructor came to me and said
I should come into his apartment to wait at the parlor while he finished his
discussion with Sgt Hossan, who happened to be owner of the car we drove in. I
was hoping as my immediate neighbor, he would take me home after dropping off
instructor, the last man remaining besides me.
Deception
I sat at the parlor and all of a
sudden, I heard the sound of Hossan vehicle outside and I made the door to go
out to confirm. Immediately, the instructor rushed in, pushed me back and shut
the door. I asked why he pushed me and shut the door knowing Sgt Hossan was to
take me home.
He asked in Pidgin English, “U
mean say after I train you finish as recruit, na your course mate go charge
through you first before me?”I asked what he meant by that utterance just as
Sgt Hossan zoomed off. I told him he knew quite well that it was not right for
me to be in his apartment and Hossan, supposed to take me home has driven off.
I begged him to open the door, he
refused and we started an argument. From the argument, we started fighting.
Battery and rape
He was beating me mercilessly,
carrying and hitting on the floor. If I want to scream, he would cover my mouth
so violently that no passerby hears my screaming. We struggled for more than
two hours as I shouted for help. I pleaded with him not to touch me because it
was evident he wanted to forcibly sleep with me. I pleaded that I am a virgin
and he should not hurt me.
He said it was none of his
business if I were a virgin and that he must charge through me first before any
other person. I said I will not allow him rape me. Then he hit my head against
the wall, saying he would teach me a lesson since I am proving stubborn. Then I
fainted.
Pool of blood
When I regained consciousness, I
discovered the bed I lay was soaked with water and I saw myself on a pool of
blood. I sensed he has violently beaten to coma and violated me. Even in that
state as I regained consciousness, he attempted raping me a second time. I was
weak and dizzy with the wine. cannot
explain how but I managed to struggle out of the door. Outside, I tried
crossing a gutter, but collapsed again.
Medical attention
The next day, May 18, I found
myself in a hospital bed at about noon. When I attempted urinating, my whole
pelvis was aching severely and blood coming out of my private parts. My body
was soaked with sand and water with bruises all over from the struggle and
beating from him.
They led me to the toilet, but I
could not urinate because of the pains the doctor told me the instructor and
ACM Bello brought me. asked how and why
they brought me. He said the instructor said I was having malaria and so they
were managing me for malaria, but he was doubtful of the indicated condition
because of the blood flow from my vagina. Therefore, he asked if I was seeing
my period. I said no, but could not explain because of the pain and trauma, so
he took me back to the bed.
Untimely discharge
He started asking me more
questions. The medical officer identified himself as Sgt Samsudeen. I told him
to give me a paper and pen. The more I was writing the more I felt traumatized.
At this point, I mustered courage to open up to him my ordeal. On hearing my
story, he called in two colleagues, Sgt. Uganjuwa, now Flying Officer and
Flying Officer Balami, a medical doctor.
They examined me and I overheard
them saying this is a big problem and wondering how they were going to hide it,
not wanting to be involved. They quickly discharged me knowing I was not yet
okay at all. They took me to my apartment and told me I have injections and
drugs to come and take the next day.
Conspiracy to cover up the rape
and battery
The next day, May 19, I received a
call from Dr. Balami saying the Aeromedical Commander, Air Cmdr Shinkafi, wants
to see me aside injections I needed to take. There was no strength in me at
that point. I was still bleeding and aching all over my body, but because of
the urgency of medical attention I needed, I summoned courage to be at the
hospital, which was luckily just behind my apartment.
A passerby, who saw me struggling
to walk down, assisted me to the hospital. I got there and no one was willing
to attend to me. I was groaning in pains, but they said I should wait for the
Aero-medical Commander. Then I collapsed again. I never knew where I was and
what they did to me. I spent two weeks and three days in the hospital from that
point. During my hospitalization, they took me to theatre, but they never told
me what operation they carried out on my body.
They kept me secluded from other
patients. I noticed that I bled for three days before they took me to the
theatre. They did scan on me, after those two weeks and three days, they
discharged me. During my admission, Squadron Leader Okafor, now late, was the
Commanding Officer I served under as an Air Police, he came and collected an
official statement from me and told me the Air Force was going to give me
justice.
Warned to keep mum
After my discharge from the
hospital, the Aero-medical Commander told me I should not talk, that Air Force
would give me justice. Air Commodore N.A. Sanusi told me same. The late AVM
Salihu, Air Officer Commanding Training Command in Kaduna and the Base Commander
335 Base Services Route, where I was serving, also told me not to talk.
Air Commodore Sanusi, Director of
Air Police was repeatedly warning that I should not speak of my ordeal to the
hearing of the society, including my family. Surprisingly they appointed a
marshal on the incident, but they neither allowed me to have a lawyer nor
participate in telling my story, except one day they asked me to appear as a
witness to prove how the instructor brutally battered and defiled me as a
virgin. They brought prosecution counsels and denied me access to the marshal,
all in bid to cover up and sweep the criminality under the carpet.
Punitive posting/intimidation
Immediately after the court
marshal, they posted me outside Kaduna in that 2011, I was not due for posting.
I am supposed to serve for minimum four years in Kaduna before posting from my
first service point. At Abuja, victimization started. In muster parade, Group
Capt Inuwa would be asking me before everybody if my virginity was gold. He
would say these people were very wicked and they can easily kill me.
He told me this not once, not
twice with serious threats. He started the intimidation and threat to my life.
When I voiced that what they did to me is injustice, they would say I am a
fowl, they can easily kill and that nothing would happen if they kill me. They
asked me if I do not know that Airforce women are officers’ materials and said
that my rape was not the first case.
Infected with STD
From there, I was so restricted
and so monitored that I never had a life of my own anymore. In addition, the
rapist infected me with severe STD, which they never told me. They were giving
me antibiotics and I started fainting on regular basis from that May I left
hospital in Kaduna up until my transfer to Abuja. When I asked what was wrong
with me, they would say nothing.
In 2012, they posted me unduly
again to Lagos. They posted me abruptly again because they found I wanted to
expose them as I had gone to Human Rights Fighters in Abuja where they
interviewed me. In one of my encounters with Human Rights group, the officer
and his gang called to threatened that I would die or not be alive to try the
case after which I did not hear from the human rights people again.
I also contacted Barrister Okon
because of my ordeal with the rape and torture and the fact that they did not
give me adequate medical attention. I had vaginal discharge, swollen vulva,
severe itching, pelvic pains, which they termed chronic pelvic inflammatory
disease.
At that point, my kidney enlargement
was between 10.2 and 11.4cm because I could not urinate frequently from the
pelvic pain and the sexual violation, which doctors that attended to me at the
NAF Base Kaduna established. They certified that my sexual violation, physical
assault and brutal rape with document reports.
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