Touching emotional real life story, this lady needs help,
justice must be done, anyway read her story first.
Vanguard
report…………………………..
It was not until Warri
Reporter, EGUFE YAFUGORHI, detailed to meet the victim at an agreed venue that
she 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.
To be continued.......
Vanguard
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