A female soldier who was dismissed from the army for getting pregnant after she was raped by suspected bandits while travelling to Ogbomoso, Oyo State, has appealed her dismissal.
Army board of inquiry (BOI) investigated the incident and recommended her trial where she was charged with one count of ‘conduct prejudicial to service discipline’ where she was then dismissed from service.
The soldier’s lawyer, Johnson Oyewole described the dismissal of his client as unlawful and also appealed to the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen Tukur Yusuf Buratai to upturn the decision.
The appeal revealed that the victim was enlisted in the Army in March 2012 as a member of 67 Regular Recruits intake, and was serving with 56 Signal Command, Mile 2, Lagos, before the incident.
Challenging the dismissal, Barr. Oyewole said;
It is manifest that the purported trial of our client was tainted with substantial irregularities; there is no offence under the law and no element of the offence of misconduct prejudicial to service discipline that talks of pregnancy while in service and warranted dismissal under section 103 (1).
He also revealed that his client lawfully applied for and obtained a pass to travel to Oyo State, sometime in October 2014 when the vehicle she boarded ran into bandits along Odo-Oba road and she was allegedly raped by five men.
She was taken to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Osun state where she was treated for six days.
Barr. Oyewole stated that as a result of the sexual assault, the assaulted female soldier obtained an extract from the Police Crime Diary, a Sworn Affidavit, as well as a Medical Report, which clearly indicated that she sustained “injury of right ankle joint with laceration and bruises around the thigh region.”
In December, she reported sick at the Military hospital and the matron confirmed that she was 12 weeks pregnant.
