A female soldier, who identified herself as Corporal Marian Agumba has accused senior officers of the Nigerian Army of harassment, assault, and persistent threats to her life, following what she described as years of frustration and victimisation within the military.
In a video on social media and sighted by the media on Thursday, Corporal Agumba made a passionate appeal to President Bola Tinubu, the Chief of Army Staff, and the Chief of Defence Staff for help, alleging that her life and safety were in danger.
“I’m going to be making this video today. I’m calling upon Mr. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Chief of Army Staff, and the Chief of Defense Staff,” she said.
“Maybe if I had made this video earlier, all these things that have been happening wouldn’t have been lingering.”
The soldier, who claimed to have served in the Nigerian Army for 13 years, said she joined with her whole heart to serve the country, but had not had peace of mind since enlisting, alleging that officers continuously frustrated her and subjected her to intimidation.
“I joined the army with my whole heart to serve the country, but since I joined the army, I have not had peace of mind. The officers kept frustrating my life.
“This video I’m making today, I know that if it sees the light of the day, they might tag me mentally unstable or bipolar, but I’m pleading for help,” she said.
Corporal Agumba alleged that she was targeted because she refused sexual advances from some superior officers.
“Had it been I have contacts or I have been sleeping around the way officers want me to be sleeping with them, they wouldn’t have been doing all the things they have been doing to me,” she claimed.
According to her, after she voluntarily resigned from the Nigerian Army in July, the harassment did not stop. She alleged that she and her two-year-old child were unlawfully detained and assaulted.
“Because of the frustration in the Nigerian Army, I left. My voluntary discharge came out in July. I have been discharged, and yet, the officers did not leave me alone.
“They kept threatening my life. They locked me up with my two-year-old child, who is now three years old. They locked me in the guard room, gave an order for a private soldier to assault me and my child.”
She further alleged that after the assault, she was falsely charged and punished.
“After assaulting me, they still charged me for the same assault and laid a series of accusations on me, that I threatened a senior officer, that I was the one who assaulted the private soldier, and that I escaped confinement,” she said.
“After doing all these things, they locked me again in the guard room for seven days, denying me access to my child without me knowing where my baby is. After that, they removed my rank; they ranked me from Corporal to Lance Corporal.”
Agumba specifically accused two senior officers, Lieutenant Colonel Osarema and Lieutenant Colonel Nkanan, of ordering and supervising her assault and punishment.
“When I was crying and lamenting how the private soldier assaulted me and threatened me that he was working under the order of Lieutenant Colonel Osarema and Lieutenant Colonel Nkanan, that he was acting based on order, this boy assaulted me, and they still deranked me, charging me for the assault,” she alleged.
She claimed that despite being officially discharged, the threats have persisted.
She said, “I’m done being strong. All I’m pleading for is proper justice and help. I want the government, the president, I want the Chief of Army Staff to grant me justice, to grant me help because the former Chief of Army Staff who signed my voluntary discharge and then allowed them to give me my certificate and record of service, that they should put my name in the people they are supposed to settle by paying gratuity and everything.
“Now there is a new Chief of Army Staff, and these officers, I kept getting calls from Abuja by Major Monday saying that with this new Chief of Army Staff in the seat, they are going to revoke my certificates, that they are going to stop paying me.”
Corporal Agumba maintained that she had served the Nigerian Army faithfully and was being victimised for refusing sexual advances from the senior officers.
“I am not a criminal. I have never been found wanting since I joined the army. I have been doing the work with my whole heart, but I have been facing frustration from officers wanting to sleep with me, wanting to do one or two with me, and any time they bring all those things, I refuse; they will target it as arrogant,” she said.
Agumba alleged that one of her superiors, Lieutenant Colonel Osarema, ordered her assault and detention after she rejected his advances.
“Lieutenant Colonel Osarema, because I refused to sleep with him, he not only give an order for them to assault me and my child, but he also gave them an order to lock me up,” she alleged.
She further claimed that despite being the victim, she was punished and deranked.
She said, “He not only stopped there, they still charged me for the assault, they still charged me that I escaped confinement, and then deranked me, where is that being done?
“That you assaulted a soldier, you locked the soldier with a baby, and after doing all those things, you still charge, and derank that soldier, locking me for seven days after everything, without food, nothing, nothing, denying me access, and I didn’t know the whereabouts of my child throughout those seven days in the guard room.”
She added that even after her voluntary discharge, threats to her life continued.
According to her, “The Chief of Army Staff still granted me voluntary retirement, with which I have left the Army, and they are still threatening me that they would make me disappear, and since I left the Army, they have kept calling me to Abuja.”
She said she had earlier refrained from going public despite the assaults and threats.
“I would have done this video for a very long time when I was assaulted and when they threatened to make me disappear, and not even the Chief of Army Staff would save me, but my spiritual directors told me not to do the video.”
Agumba also revealed that when she sought help from a superior officer, she was told there was nothing he could do.
“When I ran to my commander, General Okwuosa, in 2 Division Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, he said he couldn’t help me, that if I knew anybody I wanted to call, I should call.”
Agumba also decried what she described as a culture of sexual harassment, corruption, and intimidation within the Nigerian Army, particularly against female soldiers.
“As an Igbo young lady, if you are not sleeping around with an officer, you will be suffering malice in the Nigerian Army,” she said.
“This is how they kept suffering us, intimidating us, and maltreating us in the Nigerian Army. I got frustrated and I left, yet they did not stop there. Let them leave me to go, let them leave me alone, but they said no.”
Agumba lamented that despite her 13 years of service, her benefits and entitlements were being withheld.
“They kept threatening me, and now my benefit of 13 years, they want to stop it; they want to revoke my certificate; they want to stop any benefit that is due to me after I served Nigeria for 13 good years with my youth, and all my life,” she said.
In her continued appeal, Corporal Agumba lamented poor welfare conditions in the Nigerian Army and renewed her plea for justice and protection from harassment.
“The salary is not as if it is up to feeding. It doesn’t feed someone, nothing. The operation has no benefit. The MSS, I did not get any, and they kept threatening my life. I have left the army, and they still did not leave me alone; they still did not let me go,” she said.
Agumba called on President Tinubu and human rights organisations to intervene, saying she had exhausted all internal channels for help.
The distraught soldier pleaded for justice and protection, saying, “You are not feeding well, and they will be intimidating you. An officer will tell you to come and sleep with him, and when you refuse, they will tag it as indiscipline, arrogant, or rude.”
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