A soldier has been dismissed by the Nigerian Army for getting pregnant after she was raped by suspected bandits when she was traveling to Ogbomosho, Oyo State.
The raped victim was later charged with one count charge of ‘conduct prejudicial to service discipline’, she was found guilty and subsequently dismissed from the regiment.
According to ThePunch, she declined to speak on her ordeal when she was contacted on Wednesday; according to her, “I have not asked you to publish anything, but we are working on the appeal.”
However, her lawyer, Johnson Oyewole, expressed confidence that his client’s unlawful dismissal would be overturned and expressed optimism that she would be recalled to continue serving her fatherland.
According to the appeal to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, filed by her lawyer, the victim was enlisted in the Army in March 2012 as a member of the 67 Regular Recruits intake, and was serving with 56 Signal Command, Mile 2, Lagos, before her ordeal.
The letter challenging the soldier’s dismissal read, “It is manifest that the purported trial of our client was tainted with substantial irregularities; there is no offence under the law and no element of the offence of misconduct prejudicial to service discipline that talks of pregnancy while in service and warranted dismissal under section 103(1).”
The letter further explained that the soldier obtained a pass to travel to Oyo State, sometimes in October 2014 when the vehicle she boarded ran into the bandits along Odo-Oba road and she was allegedly raped by five men.
She was then taken to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, where she was treated for six days.
She then obtained an extract from the police crime diary following the sexual assault, then a sworn affidavit, as well as medical report, which indicated that she sustained “injury of right ankle joint with laceration and bruises around the thigh region.”
She was later reported sick at the Military hospital and the matron confirmed that she was 12 weeks pregnant in December.
