The groups in a joint statement signed by RULAAC Executive Director, Okechuwu Nwanguma and CRRAN President, Olu Omotayo Esq, faulted the claim by the Nigerian Army that the female soldier had not officially exhausted the available institutionalised channels before going on the social media.
Two civil society organisations - Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Center (RULAAC) and Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN) - have called for the immediate release of detained Corporal Ruth Ogunleye who accused some senior army officers of sexual harassment.
The groups in a joint statement signed by RULAAC Executive Director, Okechuwu Nwanguma and CRRAN President, Olu Omotayo Esq, faulted the claim by the Nigerian Army that the female soldier had not officially exhausted the available institutionalised channels before going on the social media.
SaharaReporters had reported that one Ruth Ogunleye, a female soldier of the Nigerian Army, had in a viral video accused a colonel and two other senior officers of sexual harassment, intimidation and threat to life.
On January 16, SaharaReporters reported that the female soldier had been arrested and flown to Abuja from Lagos.
“The lady who complained in the viral video about sexual harassment in the military has been arrested and moved to Abuja by air this morning. She was flown out accompanied by military police in mufti from Lagos to Abuja,” a top military source told SaharaReporters.
The soldier serving in Lagos State, who did not disclose her name but later identified as Ruth, raised the alarm in the viral video that some senior army officers were threatening her life for rejecting their sexual advances.
She lamented how the senior army officers – whom she identified as Col. I.B. Abdulkareem, Col. G.S. Ogor and Brig. Gen. I.B. Solebo – had been oppressing her since she was posted to Cantonment Medical Centre, Ojo, Lagos in 2022, for refusing their sexual advances.
She said she had been locked up several times for no reason, ejected from her apartment, and put in a psychiatric hospital for a month without any medication based on a false claim that she had a mental illness.
Reacting to the continued incarceration of the female soldier, the civic groups maintained that her sexual harassment allegations should not be swept under the carpet on technical grounds as military authorities had alluded to.
They insisted that Ogunleye's detention was wrong and without justification, adding that the hallmark of democracy is the respect for the Rule of Law by all the organs and components of the federation.
According to the statement, the army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu, in his ignorance of the correct position of the law, stated that the female soldier had not officially exhausted the available institutionalised channels before going on social media.
The organisations said that his statement "is ottios, misleading and cannot be backed up by any law, practice or procedure in force in Nigeria”.
Their statement said, "It is pertinent to bring to your notice the clear and unambiguous provisions of Sections 178 and 179 of the Armed Forces Act 1994. The said provisions guide officers and men of the Armed Forces on the procedure for making complaints respectively.
"We hereby state without equivocation that in view of the interpretation of Sections 178 and 179 of the Armed Forces Act 1994 and the combined decision of the Court of Appeal in the case of NWANKWO V. NIGERIA ARMY & ORS (2021) LPELR-56718(CA) at Pp. 22-26 paras. B-B), Corporal Ruth Ogunleye is entitled to lodge a complaint or seek remedy for whatever wrong she has suffered by other means available within the ambit of the Laws in force in Nigeria.
"The Court of Appeal held that the word ‘MAY’ make a complaint with respect to the matter to the Forces Council, used in the provision is not mandatory after the initial report to his commanding officer. The Court of Appeal held as follows: ‘Looking at the wordings of Section 178(1) (reproduced once more for clarity): (1) If an officer thinks himself wronged in any matter by a superior officer or authority and on application to his commanding officer does not obtain the redress to which he thinks he is entitled, he ‘MAY’ make a complaint with respect to that matter to the Forces Council.’"
The groups noted that the “Appeal Court further held that ‘there is no duty imposed on any public functionary to do any duty. The use of the verb ‘may’ clearly makes the decision to make a complaint to the Forces Council optional under this subsection’.
"Therefore, the female soldier under the law need not exhaust the channels provided under section 179 of the Armed Forces Act. The initial report to the appropriate authority where she is serving suffices.
"A careful consideration of the above insight reveals the army authorities' ignorance of the actual position of the law in view of the pronouncement of the Court of Appeal which is not only disheartening but shameful.
"Furthermore, Corporal Ogunleye has not committed any offence known to the law to warrant her detention unlawfully. The said detention is in contravention of her Fundamental Human Rights as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; Sections 33, 34, 35, 39, 40 and 42 CFRN 1999 As amended."
They maintained that the fundamental human rights of people are sacrosanct and must be respected irrespective of the profession of the citizens.
"There is no exception to the circumstance of Corporal Ogunleye and the fact that she is a member of the Armed Forces does not preclude her from exercising her rights especially where she has been made to suffer a violation and a wrong.
"We wish to state at this point that where there is a wrong, there must be remedy and she must not be made to suffer any further for seeking remedy and justice. She is thus entitled to urgent and immediate release from the Military police who have held her hostage under the guise of the Armed Forces," he said.
In their demands, they called on the Attorney General of the Federation to guide the Nigerian Army authorities by bringing to their attention the current and correct position of relevant applicable laws as enunciated by the Court of Appeal.
They also called on the army authorities to ensure the immediate release of the detained soldier and thereafter investigate the substance of the complaint which is sexual harassment of the person of Corporal Ruth Ogunleye by the said senior officers.
"This matter cannot be swept under the carpet on technical grounds. The hallmark of democracy is the respect for the Rule of Law by all the organs and components of the Federation and we seek to explore all relevant means within the provisions of the law for the release of Corporal Ruth Ogunleye," the statement said.