Names Of 53 Abducted Obigbo Young Women, Serially Raped For Weeks At Mogadishu Army Barracks
Names Of 53 Abducted Obigbo Young Women, Serially Raped For Weeks At Mogadishu Army Barracks (Abuja) And Dumped Afterwards In DSS Dungeons
Intersociety, Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria
Sunday, 14th Feb 2021
Retired LtGen Tukur Yusuf Buratai as immediate past Chief of Army Staff chillingly left alegacy of monstrosity and barbarism in the Nigerian Army. This is to the extentthat few weeks after he was named as Nigerian Army Chief of Staff in July 2015,the secularity and professional tradition and culture of the Nigerian Army gotchanged and irreparably bastardized. Today, apart from Nigerian Army clearlyrunning a hateful agenda on ethnic and religious grounds; particularly targetedat Christians and defenseless members of Igbo Ethnic Nationality-the largestChristian Ethnic Group in Nigeria, the Nigerian Army has also become anabominable army and key perpetrator of internationally classified and defined‘prohibited acts’ including abominable sexual and other gender-based violence.
Atrocitiesof the Nigerian Army have remained ceaselessly untamed or unchecked week inweek out since 2015. It is a height of abomination for soldiers of the Nigerianto have degraded themselves to the extent of engaging in serial rape and otherabominable sexual violence against innocent and defenseless young IgboChristian women inside the Mogadishu Barracks-a Barracks not too far away fromHeadquarters of the Nigerian Army in Abuja. This is to the extent of raping todeath one, if not more than one of them and deflowering and inflicting bruisesand internal injuries on another, as young as 23, who resisted being rapedbecause she was a virgin. In all these, the Nigerian Army has dangerously becomeserially incorrigible and earned a status of ‘denial virus’-as it engages inserial and empty denials and hardly conducts credible investigations or fishesout its perpetrator personnel and hold them administratively and judiciallyaccountable.
The abovewas the position of the InternationalSociety for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law contained in a statementissued today in Onitsha, Eastern Nigeria and signed by Emeka Umeagbalasi (Criminologist & Graduate of SecurityStudies), Board Chair, Barrister Obianuju Igboeli, Head of Civil Liberties& Rule of Law, Barrister Chinwe Umeche, Head of Democracy & GoodGovernance, Barrister Chidinma Udegbunam, Head of Campaign & Publicity,Barrister Ndidiamaka Bernard, Head of Int’l Justice & Human Rights and Comrade Samuel Kamanyaoku, Head of Field Data Collection &Documentation.
How The 53 Obigbo Young WomenWere Abducted & Serially Raped At Mogadishu Barracks
The 53 younggirls and women and others in non-menopausal age bracket, were abducted by theNigerian Army in Obigbo, Rivers State between Oct and Nov 2020 and seriallyraped for weeks by its soldiers at the Mogadishu (Abacha) Barracks in Abuja.They were part of those abducted at various arenas at Obigbo on their way homefrom work between 7pm and 7.30pm on 20th Nov 2020 and taken toObinze Army Barracks in Owerri in the dead of the night or hours of the bluelaw from where they were secretly transported next night to the MogadishuBarracks, Abuja where many, if not most of them were raped and used as ‘sexslaves’ for weeks before they were secretly transferred to DSS dungeons inAbuja where they are presently held incommunicado.
It isrecalled that Intersociety had inDec 2020 issued a statement alleging that ‘400 defenseless Obigbo residents ormore including young women were abducted by the Nigerian Army between Oct andNov 2020 and secretly transported to different military dungeons in NorthernNigeria where they were clamped into indefinite and incommunicado detentionwithout charge and public knowledge’. Weeks after, 52 of the abductees wererescued in Niger State and three died in Army captivity. Also between Dec 2020and end of Jan 2021, 93 of them were located, rescued and freed through Courtbails. Just few days back, another 63 were granted bail and their bailconditions are being perfected. That is to say that a total of 145 Obigboabductees including two young females have been freed while 63 more are set tobe freed in coming days. With latest discovery of 53 women among them, thetotal number of located names among the over 400 Obigbo abductees is now 261,out of which 145 have been freed, 63 are about to be freed and 53 (all women)have just been located and over 140 are stillat large. All the abductees, from our several investigations, are engaged indifferent types of legitimate occupation and other lawful social activities.Some of them also are husbands and wives, brothers and sisters; and young andnursing mothers.
How Names Of The 53 Women WereDiscovered
Followingthe release of the second batch of the Obigbo abductees numbering 29 on 29thDec 2020 including two young women (23 years old and 21 years old); a case ofrape by soldiers of the Nigerian Army attached to Mogadishu Barracks andsimilar harassments at Obinze Army Barracks in Owerri, Imo State was reported andon 8th Feb 2021, Intersocietydispatched its investigators to interview the victims. Intersociety is retaining its right of confidentiality bywithholding the identities and full accounts of the two rape victims. However,part of their accounts relevant to this statement is that “they were abductedalongside multiple dozens of other young women and men between 7pm and 7.30pmon 20th Nov 2020 at Obigbo”. The victims were abducted on their wayhome from their job or work places. The two rape victims were specificallyabducted and labeled “criminals” on their way home from their hair dressingsalon shops and at a local commuter bus stop. Their abductors (soldiers) operatedwith a luxurious bus “packed” with multiple dozens of abductees. They weretaken away to undisclosed locations same night only for them to find themselvesnext day (21st Nov 2020) at Obinze Army Barracks, Owerri (Imo State).In the late evening of same (21st Nov), they were again taken awayin the same luxurious bus only for them to find themselves next morning atMogadishu Barracks, Abuja.
At arrivalin the Mogadishu Barracks, they were separated and dumped in ‘male and femaleguardrooms’. The victims also importantly informed Intersociety “that there were over 50 young women in the femaleguardrooms-all Obigbo abductees” and that “during their stay in the guardroomsand less than two days after their arrival, soldiers turned them into ‘sex slaves’and serially raped them using “random picking or selection”. The victims addedthat “just a day after their arrival from Obinze on 22nd Nov, 2020,one of them, called ‘Victoria’ was raped to death and her corpse disappearedtill date.” The victims told Intersocietythat “they were not raped inside guardrooms but were randomly picked eachof the raping days and taken to designated spots where they were raped andreturned to guardrooms”. The victims also alleged that “they were tortured,abused, degraded and starved of food and toiletries while in the Army captivityand were also totally blocked from their families and stripped of theirpersonal belongings including cash sums, bags, jewelries and mobile phones”. Intersociety, Barr E.R. Okoroafor andothers have since sent the clips of the interview to strategic groups includingnotable women’s rights groups outside the country.
How The 53 Young Women WereTraced To DSS Dungeons
It was athorough underground search and investigation, built on the rape victims’accounts and anchored by Barr E.R. Okoroafor, assisted by the leadership ofIPOB, an internationally respected rights group and Intersociety that paid offleading to tracing of names of the 53 young women to DSS. It was further foundthat they were handed over to DSS by Nigerian Army several weeks after theirabduction and being serially serial raped. DSS in turn, dictatorially clampedand detained them incommunicado using crooked remand orders without recourse torequired judicial review of same at the expiration of remand deadlines asprovided in the Access to Criminal Justice Act of 2015 and in flagrantviolation and breach of 35 (4) of the 1999 Constitution. If abducted in Oct 2020, the 53 women andothers still held captive must have been held for four months and over threemonths if abducted in Nov 2020. This is more so when the Nigerian Army (thesole abductors) and the Spy Police or DSS have neither charged them to courtnor released them unconditionally; likewise maintaining silence of thegraveyard till date.
Names Of The 53 Raped AndAbducted Young Women
They are: IjeomaFrancisca, Pauline anyanwu, Grace Samson, Rebecca Ibeanusi, Ebere Uchechi, EmmanuellaOluchukwu, Okafor Uloma, Peace Amaka, Eberechi ibe, Ekene Silver, Grace Anwulika,Mba Asiegbu, Modestus Umeazie, Blessing Paulina, Joy Anozie, AmarachukwuBelieve, Amadi Chinasa, Onwuka Uzoma, Chidinma Ukachukwu, Chioma Isaac, Peace Isaac,Ebube Aneto, Tina Emeka,, Stephanie Sunday, Mercy Chidinma, Diri Ibe, Mirabel Angel,Nwosu Abigail, Uwaoma Queen, Sarah Alo, Sandra Evoh, Cynthia Evoh, Bridget Dede,Erica Ndubisi, Oluchi Mercy, Uchendu Priscilla,Goodness Kaima, Ujunwa Ndubisi,Mama Nnamdi, Ekpere Odinanka, Nwoji Mary, Rosemary Ogudike, Happiness Odinaka,Georgina Umunze, Ngozi White, Atumofe Charity, Atumofe Precious,AmakaEbere, Clementina Obiageli, Success Florence, Dike Amara, Kelechi Orji andUkaamaka Oluchi.
Contacts:
Phone/WhatsApp: +2348174090052, Email: [email protected], Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
