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From Judex Okoro, Calabar
More reactions have continued to trail the assault on a female corps member, Ezeiruka Ifenyiwa Fidelia, by military officer, Lieutenant Chika Viola Anele, attached to 13 Brigade, Calabar. The human rights community in Cross River State has promised free legal services to the assaulted corps member.
Ifenyiwa, deployed to the 13 Brigade for her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in the state for her primary assignment, was allegedly assaulted in July by Viola following an argument that erupted between them. According to the video released by a person sympathetic to her plight, Ifenyiwa was seen kneeling down under dehumanising conditions.
Sources close to the 13 Brigade headquarters told our correspondent that when the incident happened two months ago, a right organisation took up the matter with the Army authorities and no action was taken since then till the video was made public.
Reacting to the inhuman treatment, the head of Basic Rights Counsel Initiative based in Calabar, James Ibor, described the action of the army officer as dastardly that should not go unpunished, adding that Nigerian citizens should not be subjected to such inhuman indignity.
Ibor said: “It is very unfortunate that the Nigerian Army, which gulps one-tenth of our annual budget in the last ten years, has displayed a high level of indiscipline. It is very disheartening that the army can subject a youth corps member serving the nation to such inhuman and degrading treatment.”
Also condemning the indignity meted out on their colleague, a youth corps member serving in one of the public schools in Calabar South, said no amount of disagreement should have warranted one of theirs to be treated as a nobody.
Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Cross River State on Non-Indigene Affairs (Igbo), Ugoji Nwabueze, said in a press statement that the act has placed the integrity and public relations principles of the Nigerian Army before the court of public conscience.
“No matter the height of provocation, Lt Chika crossed the red line of decorum and decency expected of an officer of that level.
“Because she is our daughter is even the reason we must join the Nigerian Army in its condemnation of the act as unprofessional and against established precepts of discipline in the Army. We refused to be associated with bad manners.
“We commend the Army Headquarters for immediately instituting an investigation that led to the identification and possible arrest of the suspect. We are told that she will undergo regimental orders (trial) in line with the extant provisions of the Armed Forces Act. We urge the Nigerian Army to use serious infractions like this to convince Nigerians of its determination to bring discipline into its rank and file,” he stated.
