A Nigerian civil rights advocacy group-Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA)- has called on the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, to promptly order the release from illegal arrest and arbitrary detention of a young female soldier Miss. Ruth Ogunleye over her public statement protesting her alleged serial sexual harassment, intimidation, dehumanisation and false imprisonment by some highly placed senior officers of the Nigerian Army for rejecting their sexual gratification demands.
HURIWA in a statement condemning the reported arrest of this victim of severe human rights violations which are highly egregious and offends salient fundamental provisions of the Nigerian Constitution guaranteeing respect for human rights of every person irrespective of status, including numerous universal, global-wide human rights laws and treaties entered into by Nigeria as a member of the United Nations, HURIWA said her arrest if confirmed as reported, is not only unconstitutional and primitive but runs contrary to the image being created by the hierarchy of the military in the last few years regarding the mainstreaming of adherence to the constitutional provisions protecting and promoting human rights. “Does this mean that all the resources both human and Financial, committed by the military institutions towards driving the process of establishing functional human rights desks and a full fledged department for Civil and military Relations are now being thrown to the winds or to the dogs?”
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The group in the release signed by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator said it is unnatural and indeed strange, that the Army is now trying to employ crude means to suppress the human rights of Ruth Ogunleye who is a victim of human rights violations committed by some senior officers and this primitive methodology of the Nigerian Army in this 21st century world depicts the Nigerian Army as not telling the World the truth when it claimed on many occasions that the military institution has set up the mechanisms and department for the resolution of issues arising from human rights abuses and cases either between the military operatives or civilians.
HURIWA listed out the constitutional provisions violated by the arrest of Ruth Ogunleye by the hierarchy of the Nigerian Army thus: Sections 34. (1) Every individual is entitled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly –
(a) no person shall be subject to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment.
(b) no person shall he held in slavery or servitude: and
(c) no person shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. 39. (1) Every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom, to hold opinions and I receive and impart ideas and information without interference.
HURIWA listed other constitutional provisions being flagrantly violated by the action of arresting a junior female soldier who is complaining of serial sexual harassment, to include: Section 41. (1) Every citizen of Nigeria is entitled to move freely throughout Nigeria and to reside in any par thereof, and no citizen of Nigeria shall be expelled from Nigeria or refused entry thereby or exit therefrom.
Citing Section 42 of the Constitution, HURIWA said: “A citizen of Nigeria of a particular community , ethnic group, place of origin , sex , religion or political opinion shall not by reason only that he is such a person:
(a) be subjected either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any executive or administrative action or the government, to disabilities or restrictions to which citizens of Nigeria of other communities. ethnic groups, places of origin sex, religious or political opinions are nor made subject; or
(b) be accorded either expressly by, or in the practical application of, any law in force in Nigeria or any such executive or administrative action. any privilege or advantage that is not
accorded to citizens of Nigeria of or the communities, ethnic groups. places of origin.
sex, religions or political opinions.”
Ogunleye was reportedly arrested and flown to Abuja from Lagos on Tuesday.
“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 disclosed.
The soldier serving in Lagos State, who did not disclose her name, raised the alarm in the trending video that some senior army officers were threatening her life for rejecting their sexual advances.
She lamented how the senior army officers 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.
According to her, her bank account had been frozen since February 2023 and she had not been paid salary for no reason.
She further alleged that one of her alleged oppressors had attempted to rape her on multiple occasions. The female soldier said the army officer later claimed that she had a mental illness, adding that she had made several efforts including writing a petition and getting some senior and junior officers to intervene but that all was to no avail.
She also said that the same senior army officer who she claimed wanted to rape her had denied her access to every army course and passes to see her parents. According to her, her father contacted the officer over her issues, but the officer told her father to inform her to obey the last order.
She said, “I know definitely they will come for me. They will lock me up and they will dismiss me but I don’t care. I can’t endure it again. Before coming out to make this video, I can’t endure again. I don’t want to die young.
HURIWA recalled that the army through Major-General Onyema Nwachukwu, the Director of Army Public Relations stated that the female soldier did not inform relevant bodies and institutions about her predicament before releasing the video. On another breath, the Army said the allegations will be probed.
HURIWA however described the arrest and possible detention of the victim of human rights violations by senior members of the Army as a brazen attempt to muzzle this girl and to prevent her from seeking redress.
The Rights group is calling on World leaders including President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the United States based Human Rights Watch, the Nigerian office of the London based Amnesty International, to intervene swiftly to ensure that the junior female soldier is not physically, psychologically or emotionally harmed by the desperate military officers seeking to cover the tracks of the sexual predators wearing higher ranks.
HURIWA stated that the female junior soldier as a citizen of Nigeria is entitled to all the human rights provisions guaranteed by the constitution which is the Grund Norm just as the group said the Nigerian Army is not higher than the Nigerian Constitution that created it in the first place.
