The Nigerian Army has dismissed a soldier for getting
pregnant after she was raped by suspected bandits while travelling to Ogbomoso,
Oyo State.
The rape victim was charged with one count of 'conduct prejudicial to service discipline,' found guilty and dismissed from the regiment.
She, however, declined to speak on her ordeal when contacted
on the phone on Wednesday, saying, "I have not asked you to publish
anything, but we are working on the appeal," ThePunch reports.
Her lawyer, Johnson Oyewole, expressed the conviction that his client's unlawful dismissal would be overturned and she would be recalled to continue serving her fatherland.
According to an appeal to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen.
Tukur Buratai, filed by her lawyer, the victim enlisted in the Army in March
2012 as a member of 67 Regular Recruits intake and was serving with 56 Signal
Command, Mile 2, Lagos, before the incident.
The letter, which challenged 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)."
It noted that the soldier obtained a pass to travel to Oyo
State, sometime in October 2014 when the vehicle she boarded ran into bandits
along Odo-Oba road.
Five men allegedly raped her. She was taken to Ladoke
Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, where she was treated for six
days.
Following the sexual assault, she obtained an extract from
the police crime diary, an affidavit, as well as a medical report, which
indicated that she sustained "injury of right ankle joint with laceration
and bruises around the thigh region."
In December, she reported sick at the Military hospital, and the matron confirmed that she was 12 weeks pregnant.
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