“We call on all women and mothers, especially the wife of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, wives of state governors and specifically, the wife of the Oyo State Governor to lend their voices to the arrest, thorough investigation and prosecution of the randy soldier and also take steps to rehabilitate and treat the victim for any disease she might have contacted as a result of the rape incidence”- Barrister Adeosun
A student of Ibarapa Polytechnic, Eruwa, Oyo State has narrated how a soldier attached to Operation Burst, Oyo State, forcefully raped her and the Army’s efforts in aiding a cover up of the incident.
Speaking through her lawyer, Barrister Ola Adeosun, the unnamed victim said the incident occurred at about 10.30pm on Friday, 29th August while she was returning to her apartment in Oke Ola, Eruwa,
The young woman, a student of the Department of Mass Communications, said she was “arrested” by the soldier who alleged that she was a cultist.
According to her lawyer, the victim explained to the soldier that she was only escorting a friend who had visited her. She maintained that she was not a cultist, but the soldier took her to the Ibarapa Zonal office of Operation Burst located at the Eruwa Secretariat.
“On entering the premises of the Operation Burst, the victim saw other soldiers and security agents torturing some students of the Ibarapa Polytechnic within the premises. The soldier almost immediately dragged the victim to the shed under a tree at the premises, removed a two-edged knife and ordered her to remove all her clothes, as he wanted to see all the ‘occultic tattoos’ on her body”, Adeosun said.
Despite continual pleadings of innocence the lawyer alleged that the soldier beat and threatened the young woman into removing all her clothes before proceeding to rape her between the hours of around 10.30pm on Friday, 29th August, 2014 and 3am on Saturday, 30th August, 2014.
Barrister Adeosun highlighted the impunity with which the soldiers carried on their affairs in stressing that despite the young woman’s cry for help during her ordeal no soldier or officer intervened.
The young woman is said to have escaped from her attacker when the soldier left her alone to fetch clothes for her as her original clothes had been damaged from the incident.
Barrister Adeosun also reported that the victim’s parents lodged a criminal complaint at the Eruwa police station on the morning of Saturday, 30th August 2014. Eruwa police then filed the report and contacted the military authorities since the culprit was a soldier.
The victim was thereafter taken to the Operation Burst office where she identified the rapist soldier. At this point, the soldier is said to have admitted raping her and begged for forgiveness, saying his actions were the work of Satan.
The young woman’s ordeal did not end there because upon arrival at the General Hospital to undergo a rape kit exam the victim was told to go and purchase a set of examination gloves as the hospital had run out of the necessary supplies.
Having secured the gloves, the young woman was examined by Dr. Jesim Gambo, who conducted an inadequate exam with light from a GSM phone’s torchlight app. The results of the test were deemed inconclusive despite the fact that Dr. Gambo did not check inside the vagina for semen on account of inadequate rape kit exam supplies.
The lawyer added, “We were shocked to hear from relatives of the victim, who on enquiries were informed by some Army officers that the randy soldier had been made to substitute his earlier statement where he admitted the crime with another statement wherein he only admitted assaulting the victim since the medical report did not reveal that there was semen on the victim’s body!”
“This is despite assurances from both the Police and representatives of the Nigerian Army that the security agencies would ensure that the victim got justice. In our view, this is a tacit approval of crimes and criminal conducts by security agents by their direct employers, and it is a dangerous trend which every well-meaning human being must join us to condemn, as anyone of us may be exposed to danger in the event that same is allowed to stand.”
Barrister Adeosun has also revealed that the young woman is now suffering from shame, depression and alcohol abuse after being raped and had been prevented from poisoning herself last Wednesday by attentive family members. Adeosun also attributed the suicide attempt to the fact that the Army had allowed the soldier to change his initial confession of rape to the much lesser offense of simple assault.
Finally, Barrister Adeosun pleaded with all persons of good conscience, civil society organizations and women advocacy groups to join the campaign for the handing over of the rapist soldier to the Police by the Army Headquarters for proper prosecution in a civil court for the offence of rape.
Other demands made are as follows:
“That the Federal Government and the Nigerian Army Headquarters IMMEDIATELY concludes internal formalities on the randy soldier, and hand him over to the Nigerian Police Force for immediate prosecution in a Civil Court of Law.
“We demand that the Oyo State Government, being the owner of Ibarapa Polytechnic, where the victim was pursuing her academics and “OPERATION BURST” which the randy soldier is a member of, immediately intervenes and commences proper rehabilitation of the victim, so that she can return to normal life.
“We further call on the both Oyo State Government and the Federal Government to immediately ensure proper tests for HIV and every other disease that may be associated with rape, and possibly release funds to the Nigerian Police Force to carry out forensic analysis of the victim’s pants and clothes anywhere in the world.
“While we concede that issues of security are fundamental, it is difficult to demand the disbandment of “OPERATION BURST”, we rather demand that the Oyo State Government immediately restructures the “OPERATION BURST” as same has not been tackling cases of “petty robbers”, which has taken over the city of Ibadan since over two years now, but rather, they have been more active when Oyo State Government agencies and Ministries want to harass innocent citizens of the state out of places where they earn a living. A case at hand is the recent attack and attempted forceful ejection of shop owners of Agbowo Shopping Complex, U.I, Ibadan by men of “OPERATION BURST” on the supervision of the Oyo State Housing Corporation even when there was no order of court in that regard!
“Further to the above, we demand that the present crop of officers in the “OPERATION BURST” should be redeployed, and officers who are truly professional should be brought in after serious reorientation on how not to be used by politicians to harass citizens.
“We demand that the Oyo State Government immediately commences real renovation and provision of basic equipment in Oyo State public hospitals, as it is too embarrassing to hear the doctor inform the populace that an Oyo State government-owned general hospital does not have the facility to carry out tests on rape victims!
“We call on all women and mothers, especially the wife of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, wives of state governors and specifically, the wife of the Oyo State Governor to lend their voices to the arrest, thorough investigation and prosecution of the randy soldier and also take steps to rehabilitate and treat the victim for any disease she might have contacted as a result of the rape incidence”.