Private Ruth Ogunleye who was recently discharged from the Nigeria Army following her TikTok post alleging sexual harassment and intimidation from superior officers, has insisted that she was raped by a Colonel who injected her with a psychotic drug at gunpoint.
Speaking in an interview with the Punch on Sunday, Ruth Ogunleye narrated the Colonel invited her to a hotel room and offered N50,000 to her and demanded that she had sex with him. She insisted that the army rather than cover up the story, should release the details of the investigations to the public.
“This incident occurred in 2022 when I was serving in the Medical Corps at the Nigerian Army Cantonment Medical Centre, Ojo, Lagos. The Colonel (name withheld) was the commanding officer at the time. I had only been in the unit for three weeks when he started sending me gifts, which I refused to accept,” said Ogunleye.
“On February 27, 2022, he called and summoned me to meet him at the Eagleston Hotel by 5pm. When I arrived, he said he wanted to have sex with me. He offered me N50,000 to do that and even promised to help me get admitted into a military school. I refused, reminding him that it was against the Nigerian Army’s code of conduct for superiors to engage in sexual relations with subordinates.
“After that encounter, he became vindictive and began to maliciously deal with me, subjecting me to extra duties and unjust punishment. He later began injecting me with largactil, a drug typically administered to mentally ill patients to sedate them.
“He would either point a gun at me or have soldiers pin me down before injecting me. Sometimes, he would personally handcuff me.
“He would also instruct the doctors in our unit to administer the drug. After being injected, I would be unconscious for days, completely unable to function. After sexually assaulting me, he would put me in a body bag and order that I be dumped at a psychiatric hospital.
“This happened several times. He didn’t allow me to attend any military courses. He denied me access to school. He didn’t allow me to visit my parents even during festive periods. I didn’t benefit from anything.
“Sometimes, he would instruct soldiers to come to my house and bring me. They would come to my house at midnight and give me the injection. There was a time he kept me in his office for four days.
“There was a time when the ex-President of the Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association, Mrs Salamatu Yahaya came to commission a maternity ward at the cantonment where I worked at the time. She came as the wife of the former Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Farouk Yahaya. During that period, I was inside the colonel’s office lying unconscious when she came.
” He knew very well that the NAOWA president would inspect his office. However, that day, I was still feeling very unconscious after he had sexually molested me. He, then, ordered a National Youth Service Corps member (name withheld), who is a doctor in the unit, to give me a particular injection that neutralised the largactil injection he gave me. When I regained consciousness, I saw myself naked.
“All the personnel in my unit were aware. They witnessed everything because he didn’t hide what he was doing. Some of those who were bold enough to confront him got posted out of the cantonment to the North. At one point, he instructed the personnel in the unit not to speak with me.
“There was also a civilian doctor who he asked to write a report that I had a mental illness, but the doctor refused. So, he made sure that the doctor got sacked.”
