READ BELOW AN INTERVIEW OF OF THE VICTIM, IGBOBI BEAUTY UZEZI
Warri Reporter, EGUFE YAFUGORHI, met the victim
at an agreed venue and reports his encounter with Igbobi Beauty Uzezi, an Air
Police of the Nigerian Air-force, NAF, with Personal Service Number,
NAF10/25157F.
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 an 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. I 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.
SOURCE:
VANGUARD
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