Nigerian Army’s Injustice against Ruth Ogunleye 

Another indication that female soldiers will likely not get justice when they accuse senior officers of sexual abuse emerged last week when the Nigerian Army disclosed that it had discharged Private Ruth Ogunleye, who accused a senior officer, Colonel I.B Abdulkareem, of sexual harassment.

The Army specifically said the female soldier was eased out of the service on medical grounds after the conclusion of its probe.

Recall that Ogunleye had in January on her TikTok page via @Ogunleyeruthsavage1, accused Col. IB Abdulkareem, Col. G.S Ogor, and Brig. Gen. I.B Solebo, of making her life unbearable and confining her in a psychiatric hospital for several months because she turned down Abdulkareem’s sexual advances.

Giving an update, the army spokesman, Major-General Onyema Nwachukwu, explained that the senior officer did not commit the offence levelled against him by Ogunleye.

But the discharged female soldier has faulted the investigation, claiming that she was never invited to face any investigative panel or testify before any military panel to prove her sanity.

Her reactions showed that there was lack of fairness in the investigation.

A similar case was that of Beauty Uzezi, a 19-year-old Airwoman from Bayelsa State who was frustrated out of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on the same medical grounds, for alleging that she was drugged, tortured and raped by an officer, who was her former instructor.

Though a human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Femi Falana secured a $200,000 judgment for her through the ECOWAS Court, the accused officer was never sanctioned.

Another female soldier, Lance Corporal Philomena Nnamoko, attached to Ilese Sappers Barracks, Division 2, Ogun State, had also alleged that her senior colleagues beat her up and sent her to the Yaba Psychiatric Hospital on account of her refusal to give in to their sexual advances.

She had also accused the army of refusing to grant her request for a voluntary discharge as at January 2024.

All these cases give the impression that the military authorities hang the allegation of having medical issues on the neck of female soldiers who allege sexual harassment against officers.

President Bola Tinubu should stop this perceived act of injustice by disallowing the military from investigating itself on cases of sexual harassment involving its officers.

Since the military hands over soldiers involved in armed robbery and other criminal offences to the police, they should stop shielding their senior officers facing  allegations of sexual harassment, and hand them over to the police for investigation.