Topic: Assault: Naval authorities lied – Victim

Miss Uzoma Okere, the lady that was reportedly assaulted by armed ratings attached to Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade, has faulted the claims by naval authorities that she provoked the ratings.

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Olalekan Adetayo.
L-R: The victim of the recent naval ratings’ assault, Miss Uzoma Okere; President, Real Woman Foundation, Pastor Nike Adeyemi; and the President, Women Arise, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin; at a joint press briefing organised by the groups to condemn the assault on Okere in Lagos … on Sunday.

Okere, a daughter of the National Assembly‘s Sergeant-at-arms, Col. Emmanuel Okere (rtd.), was beaten and stripped naked last Monday for allegedly refusing to quickly give way for Arogundade’s convoy on Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The Director of Information, Nigerian Navy, Commodore David Naibada, had in his initial reaction claimed that Uzoma provoked the ratings when she allegedly snatched a horsewhip from one of them and beat him.

But Okere, at a joint press conference by the Real Woman Foundation and Women Arise in Lagos on Sunday, said the naval spokesman did not tell the truth.

She said the ratings started beating her before she managed to step down from her car.

Uzoma said, ”It will take a mad man to snatch a horsewhip from an armed man and start beating the armed man. I am not a mad person and so I could not have done that.

“The guys beat me while I was still inside the car. I don‘t know what emboldened me to drag the injustice they meted out on me with them, what I know is that they wronged me and I won‘t take it.”

Earlier, the founder of RWF, Mrs. Nike Adeyemi, said that the two groups – RWF and WA –would not allow the ”unfortunate and barbaric incident” go unchallenged because the lives of all citizens were precious to them.

She demanded a judicial probe to ascertain the conduct of the naval ratings and the role of their boss in the incident.

While asking for adequate compensation to be paid to Uzoma, the groups said those who participated directly or indirectly in the brutalisation of the lady should be brought to justice.

Also reacting on Sunday, the Action Congress described the incident as barbaric, appalling and unacceptable.

It said in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that everything must be done to ensure that the attack would be the last of its kind in the country.

The party noted that the conduct of the ratings negated the rule of law programme of the Alhaji Umaru Yar‘Adua administration and showed clearly that the military believed they were above the laws of the country.

On its part, the National Human Rights Commission called on the Federal Government to set up an independent judicial committee to investigate the circumstances leading to the assault.

In a statement by its Head, Public Affairs and Information, Mr. Muhammad Ladan, the commission said it viewed the incident as ”barbaric, uncivilised and a collective assault on our national psyche.”

The NHRC said the assault must be thoroughly addressed, given the negative image it had given the country‘s human rights records, especially at a time when Nigeria‘s human rights records were about to be reviewed by the Human Rights Council.

Meanwhile, an associate of the Rear Admiral, Mr. Lanre Osodi, who claimed to be with Arogundade when the case was reported to him claimed that Uzoma confirmed to the rear admiral that she snatched a rating‘s horsewhip.

Oshodi, in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents, however, said that he relied on the account of the incident narrated to the naval boss by the ratings when they dragged the victim to him inside the house.

He said, “We were in the motor park when the attention of the admiral was drawn to the case. I was there when she (the victim) confirmed to the admiral that she snatched a rating‘s horsewhip and beat him.

“I was also there when the admiral asked that his men should go and book her at a police station for assaulting a man in uniform before her father spoke with the admiral on the telephone and apologised on her behalf.”

When contacted on the telephone, Arogundade said he could not speak on record until he got a clearance from naval authorities.

I knew Uzoma Okere when we were students in ABU and feel sad that she will be treated such. But come to think of it, recruits in both the police and military have known to have beaten even professors and go free. Why will a secondary school drop out who managed to join the army or police beat a graduate.

But thank God for Uzoma who has a top father in the army, her story would have gone like the others. We shall see the end of this matter.