Igbobi
Beauty Uzezi, an Air Police of the Nigerian Air-force, NAF, with
Personal Service Number, NAF10/25157F,hails from Bayelsa state, and has just shared her scary and sad story with Vanguard newspaper. She 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?
See excerpts:
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
incarcerated over her many ordeals |
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.