Yesterday, Ms Abua a law student was abused by military officers attached to Operation Akpakwu, a security unit targeted at combating kidnappings, and sundry criminalities in Cross River state NEGROIDHAVEN has garnered.
Ms. Abua is a 17 year old daughter of Mr. Fred Abua the Chief Press Secretary to the Wife of the Governor of Cross River, Dr Linda Ayade. Abua has described the horrible experience of his daughter in the hands of disoriented military officers.
According to Fred Abua, Ms Abua was reportedly abused, harrassed, humiliated, embarrassed, traumatised and intimidated by overzealous and mischievous Nigerian soldiers.
According to him, ‘My daughter is 17, a minor. Today, at about 11:50am, she committed the crime of passing close to an Operation Akpakwu check point manned by some soldiers along Mary Slessor by Bogobri. It was the first time she would walk by a check point in her life.
‘The soldiers called her back, ‘baby girl’, ‘hey’, ‘shhhhh’, etc. And when she did not respond to the catcalls because she did not imagine those calls were for her, one of the soldiers ran after her and brought her back.
‘They made her kneel down, then decided she was kneeling on too soft a spot, so they asked her to kneel on a stone. And then they asked her to sit on the floor. All these to teach her to respect military. Of course, you can imagine the embarrassment of a young girl who is newly venturing out as passersby all watched from afar in amusement – or whatever emotion they felt.
‘Clearly, even in the minds of these soldiers who stopped her, the girl committed no offense because they were busy asking her, ‘Where are you from?’ and ‘Are you the tallest girl in your village’? Why the abuse for God’s sake!
‘I am venting here because I can see how this noble idea of the Cross River State Government which has yielded tremendous and almost magical results within just a month can easily lose it’s sting when operatives become less than professional in their conducts. I will not wait for her to bleed before I speak out. I hope this injustice is addressed.
‘I love the military and I recognize the sacrifices that many soldiers are making for the peace and safety of our country. I respect my family members who have served and some who are still serving today but I will not remain silent when some overzealous and mischievous soldiers make the disciplined men of the Nigerian army look bad.’
This incident has sparked controversy on social media as some have condemned the incident, others calling for a redress. For instance, Odey Josephine said ‘They should be called to order immediately, how I wish someone recorded the whole episode so it could be used as evidence against them.’ Leader Ben Usang said ‘Totally unacceptable bro. You did very well to speak out against this insanity by some of our soldiers. We love the military but we should not be abused by them especially where we are innocent. The culpable soldiers should be fished out and removed from the outfit immediately.’ Torty David said ‘This is torture, degrading and inhumane treatment of the dignity of her person and is a clear breach of her fundamental right to dignity as enshrined in the constitution, we can accordingly go against them to enforce her right and also sue for false imprisonment.’ Emmanuel Ibeshi a gubernatorial aspirant of the PDP in the state said ‘Fred, this happened to her so you can do something about it because you are in a position to. Take it up with appropriate quarters so the girl child can have her respect from society especially the uniform personnel on our streets in Nigeria. Who can tell how many kids have been traumatized like this and eventually raped at night or in compromised vicinities? An aide to Gov Ben Ayade by name Otu Otu Ita said ‘My apologies to your daughter. So sorry she had to go through this offensive encounter. Action is required to forestall and check excesses of uniform men.’ Richard Akpanke Akwagiobe ‘I read this with lots of sadness. However it shouldn’t end here. These soldiers have supervisors, their supervisors must be aware of this and they must state the crime of this poor little girl. This must be followed up with agrresive pres publicity- that is already being done. The petition to be submitted must also be given the widest publicity. I feel so sad these set of persons always abuse their powers whenever they are given every little oppurtunity. You need to talk to your dear daughter to address her psyche too.’ Enome Amatey said ‘Unfortunate! The earlier GOC or whoever makes the call around here addresses issues like these, the better for us all, while we respect the military and the job they do to keep us safe, they must be as professional as possible in the discharge of their duties.’
