By Adesina Soyooye
Ms. Fidelia Ifeyinwa Ezeiruaku, the National Youth Service Corps member, who was assaulted and dehumanised by an unruly female Army officer, Lt Chika Viola Anele, has been redeployed to Lagos State.
Before her redeployment, she was deployed to Calabar, Cross Rivers State, where she was serving her Primary assignment at the 13 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Calabar.
Her stay in Calabar went awry, and attracted national outrage, when Lt Anele asked her to kneel down, and proceeded to pour dirty water on her which she scooped several times from a container with a plastic bowl. She also hit Ezeiruaku with the plastic bowl a number of times, on her face with the bowl, as the helpless Corper moped in her complete humiliation.
Minister for Women Affairs, Mrs Pauline Tallen, disclosed Ezeiruaku’s redeployment to Lagos when she reacted to the scandal.
In a statement, Tallen said she, the Minister for Youths and Sports, and the Director General of the NYSC, would take up Ezeiruaku’s case till the end to ensure that she got the desired justice.
The Corper, she said, asked for a redeployment to Lagos.
Tallen: “I want to reassure all Nigerians that alongside my colleague, Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports, and the DG, NYSC, we are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that the Corp member gets the desired justice.
“I want to reassure all Nigerians that the Corp member will formally relocate to Lagos following her request to be deployed.”
The Nigerian Army has, already, taken immediate steps to institute an investigation into the shameful incident, and has taken a yet-to-be-made-public disciplinary action against Lt Anele pending the investigation.
In a strongly worded statement, Army Director of Public Relations, Brigadier-General Onyema Nwachukwu, described Lt. Anele’s action as deplorable, and embarrassing to the Army. While apologising to Ms Ezeiruaku, her family, NYSC and Nigerians, he said Anele’s action does not represent the Nigerian Army.
