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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2016

Vox pop

Alleged sexual abuse of IDPs by soldiers: Nigerians react

T

he same abuse of women by Nigerian
soldiers happened in Liberia many years
ago during the Liberian Civil War. When it
happened, the Nigerian authorities did not
take the soldiers’ actions seriously. There was
a cover-up. Nigerian soldiers went to that
country and populated it with children from
war-ravaged women who were seeking refuge.
Today, these children are grown up and
back in Nigeria, looking for their fathers. But
this time around, we all must rise up to say no
to the sexual abuse by our soldiers. A few things
the Federal Government should do include;
one, it must immediately set up a special court
martial to try those erring soldiers.
Secondly, so as to encourage the victims to
talk, there must be women rights groups who
will go to the IDP camps and interact with the
abused women. If the authorities go in during
the investigations, they are likely not to get the
facts as the victims would not talk.
Sexual abuse is a situation whereby even if the
women say they consented to the act, it does not
free the soldiers from the crime. These soldiers
are in a position of authority and in a position

•Abubakar Tsav (A former Commissioner
of Police, Lagos State)

T

his case of sexual abuse is a serious
disloyalty on the part of the soldiers
and a failure of the system. The Federal
Government asked the soldiers to protect
the women and instead of carrying out that
responsibility, they resorted to sexually
abusing them.

T

•Festus Keyamo (A lawyer and human
rights activist)
where the women could hardly resist them.
So, they had no right to touch any woman. We
should not accept testimonies from any woman
saying that she consented to the act. Any soldier
said to have been raped any IDPs must be
prosecuted and jailed like a civilian.
It is very bad. It is morally wrong and
professionally unethical. In addition, if these
soldiers are identified, they should be dealt
with.
If the women can also identify the people
who raped and impregnated them, the
culprits should be compelled to marry them.
We must also not forget that in a case
of rape, it requires immediate medical
report to prove the act in court. I advise the
government to take the welfare of our women
in the Internally Displaced Persons camps
very seriously.
The condition of the IDPs is not
commendable at the moment. If the
condition is not disorganised as it were, there
would not be opportunities for soldiers to
take advantage of the women.
The responsibility of the government is to
look after the women and that was why the
soldiers were brought in, in the first place. I
also subscribe to the idea of deploying female
soldiers to the female section of the IDPs.
This will go a long way in guarding against
sexual harassment against the female IDPs.

F

or serving soldiers to be caught
abusing the women under their
care, this is unacceptable.
Such soldiers should be arraigned
for rape. Apart from violating their
professional code, such soldiers can
also be arraigned for rape and tried in
a court of law. What the soldiers have
done is a violation of the Armed Forces
law.
On the IDPs, the government
should ensure that military women
are posted to our female IDP camps.
As a government which is concerned
with the protection and welfare of
its citizens, the way to guard against
this abuse is to let female soldiers be

•Ngozi Okoro (Coordinator,
Protection Network)

I

Child

t is a very painful scenario. The suspected
soldiers should be apprehended and if

he President has actually set up an
investigative panel to look into the
allegation. For now, the sexual harassment
by the soldiers is still at the level of
allegation. But without preempting the
outcome of the investigation, we know
that such harassment cannot be ruled
out.
And if this is true, there are procedures
of handling offenders, especially in the
military. Some of these officers have
been tried before for cases of corruption
and diversion of allowances. If a soldier
is found culpable, he should be tried
appropriately.
The victims are vulnerable women,
whose rights are being abused. The
Federal Government should carry out its
own investigations and get to the root of
the matter.
On the welfare of the women already
put in the family way, we should
remember that the camp is made up of
male and female occupants. Therefore,
there is the possibility of some male
inmates being responsible for the sexual
assaults on the fe