When the chair, Committee for the Defence of
Human Rights, CDHR, Delta State, Mr. Benefit
Orugbo, called me on phone, about a fortnight
ago, and said that he had a spine chilling case
of human rights abuse in his hands, I did not
understand the brutality of the matter and
almost ignored the issue.
However, it was not until Warri Reporter, Egufe,
decided to meet the victim at an agreed venue,
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. It is God that would PUNISH these
idiots, especially the rapist and I wonder why
they're withholding the idiot's name, I'm pissed
abeg, rubbish, absolute rubbish.. Read on
please..
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, whom 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 me 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.
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