Naval Officers Beat Up A Lady And Stripped Her - Watch Video

check this out, I found out that apart from the fact that she  is a colonels daughter, she was a barrack girl (grew up in d barracks) n went to Navy secondary school. NOw it becomes easier to see y she would have behaved the way she did.

In a civilised society, the men and officers involved would have been arraigned  before a court marshall and if found guilty (which seems to be the case here) be dishonorably discharged from the Navy, but I forgot Nigeria is non-existent on the list of civilised societies.

hmm

Source? I am the source

I know how the legal system works, facts are facts, emotion wont cut it. I didnt see any brutal beating in that video

@Gaminechic
 
1.)I went to Nigeria navy secondary school, Uzoma and i graduated from thesame set, Please remind me of when Uzoma terrorized people in school, I don't know of such a thing happening

2.)Even is she did, it is of no consequence to this issue, that has been repeated over and over again, the issue is the brutality of armed personnel to civilians e.g the okada man in ikeja, the journalist in PH, the guys who uzoma's dad allegedly oversaw the slapping of.

3.)You might not like Uzoma much (as a matter of fact i think there's some beef going on here)  but you need to put that aside (for now) and focus on the bigger picture which is seeing this incident as an opportunity to stop or at least reduce the brutalization of civilians like you and I, which we know happens everyday.

It is sometimes baffling how people tend not to see the real issues and face the realities of finding solutions. With all due respects to the 'sentimental guy', your tone reveals one of a person who may not have agreed with Uzoma's ways in the past or maybe it is based on personal experiences she never shared with you or moments you wished you may have loved to share with her, the facts remain that whatever your opinion of her in the past, she is the victim here and issues of 'uniformed inhumanity to civilians' should not be swept aside or just talked about, they should be dealt with and ensured they do not happen again. Only this evening, a report was made to parliament about a woman who wanted to claim ransom money after kidnapping her own daughter,  the issue was given great attention and policy decisions that would affect and avert such situations in the future will be made and enforced. No one came out to tell of how the abducted child was naughty at school, or how she bullied her friends over candy, the main issues were addressed and stepa have already been taken to prevent future occurences. That, I believe is how a system should work, not one where petty issues cover the main issues. We all complain that Nigeria is bad but we dont seem to want to help it change. What i feel ought to be done is a public investigation into the matter, a court martial (since civil law cannot immediately address the actions of the naval men prima facie) and a discharge from the military and subsequently, criminal charges against the men.

A good step was made by circulating a document for signature to be sent to the President, it should not end there. A further follow up must be made and policies averting such acts in the future.

Just for the records, I do not know the victim involved nor do I know any of the gentlemen or ladies who made comments earlier, I am just giving my honest opinion.

Cheers.

Apparently Gaminechic.
@Gaminechic,
Gamine you really need to work on your sense of Judgement.
Its appalling.
Can you please tell us to what capacity you knew Uzoma with respect to your knowing her past and being the only source of the seemingly false fact that she was a bully in school?

as for me i blame the woman a little for retaliating. she touched the tail of a mad dog.

If I had my way I will fuel this fire that is already burning, what we need is judicial precedence, its bigger than Uzoma and Harry Arogundade , what we need is justice that will deter further occurence, my people lets fuel   this fire , until it brings down years of military and police brutality and crime

in short, meaning she should have taken her beating and humiliation quietly from naval men whose salaries, vehicles and even horsewhip is paid for with her income tax and petroleum tax collected on her behalf by the Federal gov't
no be so
what a queer idea of a civilised society that is touting itself as a tourist destination, 2010 (now 2020) vision bla bla bla.
i'm sure that is the advice you give your siblings, spouse/lover, parents, relations and friends i.e. when your car is brushed and soldier dey flog you, do abolutely nothing, don't even take note of his name, rank, face etc so you can at least file a civil damages case against him and his bosses later

But it's strange that the father had innocent people beaten and it came full circle and the daughter was savagely beaten too,though she was innocent as well. The irony.

It doesn't matter whose daughter she is in a way,since she's actively pursuing justice. Those people and other animals like them must be brought to book.

On the other hand though,I wish she hadn't been a big man's daughter, but an average Nigerian pushing for her rights. Then she would be a symbol for everybody whose rights had ever been trampled by uniformed animals. But given whose  daughter she is, she is a symbol to other indignant big men's pickins,who are as arrogant and untouchable as their fathers. So when she triumphs these insane military men might learn to not offend big people,but assume the average Nigerian on the street is still fair game.

But a half respect is better than none, and stopping this sort of thing once and for all must begin from somewhere.

Now u guys r begning to reason den all u ve to do is condm  d act n not d person or d whole armed forces.

 

@isiukwum

or maybe you will only give such advice to your enemies

Nigeria Safe for Tourists, Investors, Says Runsewe
From Charles Ajunwa in London, 11.13.2008

Director General,  Nigerian Tourism Development Co-operation  (NTDC), Otunba Segun Runsewe, has said  Nigeria is safe for foreign toirists and investors to do business.

competitors who may have paid our Rear Admiral Aro to spoil naija's image with his barbaric display of power just last week
(skip)

definitely not talking about the nuts in our character such as Arogundade & his six uniformed thugs.
And to think that their uniforms were bought in the name of the 140m citizens of this country of whom the victim is one

Source: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=127988

From: xxxxxx@hotmail.com
To: tell-da-truth-as-it-is@sacred-truth.com
Subject: BEFORE WE COMMIT ADMIRAL AROGUNDADE TO MOTHER EARTH,
Date: Thu, 13 Nov 2008 10:36:39 +0000


[b]BEFORE WE COMMIT ADMIRAL AROGUNDADE TO MOTHER EARTH………, 

by Niji xxxxx
 

I am compelled to join the raging debate on the proprietariness or otherwise, of the maltreatment of a certain Miss Uzoma Okere by Naval ratings attached o the convoy of Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade, due to the different dimensions and distortions the story has assumed in the past few days. Journalists, Social Critics, Nigerians in Diaspora, etc have all had a field day abusing, maligning, and denigrating the Admiral, as well the Nigerian Navy.

In the first instance, let me say categorically here that I am “priviledged” to know Admiral Arogundade on a personal level and I am privy to the other version of events. I have carefully heard/read both sides of the story and painstakingly analysed the sequence of events. However, before my action is misconstrued by the usually “all-knowing Nigerian public” and the ever-(newspaper)-present “loudspeaker Lawyers”, let me point out here that my analysis of the unfortunate events of that day would not even be based on the Admirals’ version of events.

For effect, my analysis will be SOLELY based on the young woman’s version of events as contained in the “CityStrings” section of ThisDay of Friday, November 7, 2008, in an interview conducted with her by a certain Eugene Agha. I urge all commentators to refer to this article in order to understand what transpired on that fateful day.

1.     In paragraph 6 of the said article, the young woman said “…… The Oga had passed me at some point, there was this Naval rating who asked me to stop. He used his hand to display what he meant and I pointed towards Ajose Adeogun indicating that I was not going their way.” “(Paragraph 7)…. One of the ratings started whipping me; he whipped about two to three times. That was when I came out of my car angrily and he continued to whip me, so I held onto his whip and used it to whip him back.”

 

Comment – It is obvious from the above that the young woman simply failed to stop when she had been directed to do so. She had obviously used her own “intuition/discretion” to continue moving since …,  as she said …,  “she was not going their way”. Apparently this open stubbornness infuriated a Naval rating who probably assaulted her or her car (depending on whose version one decides to believe). Why did she not stop like the others? What would it have cost her to stop for 30 seconds and allow them go their way? Now, my point is if you are assaulted unjustly by a Uniformed Military man should you not have the simple decorum to go and lodge an official complaint with the Police, the Naval Police, or even the Media? More especially when you are a supposed “lady”? Then she decided to confront a Uniformed Military man in a scuffle, holding on to his whip and using the whip to whip the man. A 27 year old girl publicly whipping a Uniformed Soldier in broad daylight in front of other Soldier-colleagues and she expected to be applauded for doing that???!

2.     It is also obvious from the paragraphs above that the Admiral was not even at the scene as at the point the problem started as he had passed her “… at some point”.

3.     Now having infuriated the ratings by her obstinacy and whipping of a Uniformed Military man, they all descended on her to obviously teach her a lesson. Even in the circulated video clip of the incident the woman was beaten up by the ratings and left alone at some point only for her to pursue them again. What exactly did she expect to gain from such activity? Profound apologies, a pat on the head, and perhaps a cash donation from the ratings? And to my greatest surprise some journalists had hailed this particular action of hers as “being brave” and “holding her own ground”…. Etc The video clip was obviously edited to show only the part where she was being beaten, and not the part where she whipped a uniformed Naval rating.

4.     In paragraph 9 she said “…… The one with the Navy logo as neck tie told them to arrest and handcuff me……, ” It is apparent that it was this “arrest” that now made the ratings to drag her towards the Guest House where the Admiral had gone into. And it is at this point that the Admiral came face to face with her, after he had been briefed by his men on what transpired. In paragraph 12 she tells of the phone discussion between her father and the Admiral. The Admiral said to her that she should count herself lucky that she was not killed and that got her even more upset. Then she started to shout on the Admiral himself “…,  since we are in a democratic country….” I wonder since when democracy has allowed 27 year olds to shout publicly on Military Generals. Despite all these the Admiral actually took pity on her. It was this pity that now made the Admiral to offer advice to her that she was lucky not to have been killed before being brought to him as the ratings might have killed her with the way she kept having a go at them (moreover the Admiral knew that the moment she had been brought before him none of the ratings would dare touch her again).

5.     In paragraph 13, after shouting on the Admiral, the Admiral advised her that she needed to know that even in a democracy she must not challenge people in uniform. She said she replied that she did nothing wrong. I, for one, know for a fact that she said much more than that to the Admiral. In paragraph 14, it was her permanently obstinate & shouting reaction (to even the Admiral himself) that frustrated the Admiral into saying to her that he thought he could advise her as she was old enough to be his child. Despite all these the Admiral was the one that gave her a shirt to cover herself up with which in essence means that the Admiral did not even harbour any major grouse against her otherwise he could have easily gotten her detained and further maltreated, as the lurking ratings were hoping that was what he would instruct them to do.

6.     Also in paragraph 14 she mentions that the Admiral even had to tell her that she was not remorseful. Members of the all learned media, there must be a good reason for an Admiral to utter such words. People need to know or get to hear what and what she said to the Admiral that made the man conclude accordingly. I am sure the Admiral, at that point, probably realised that she had thuggish tendencies and could be further manhandled by the hopeful ratings waiting in the wings.

MY OBSERVATIONS

1.     Rear Admiral Arogundade has not done anything wrong in my own view. What did the public expect the Admiral to do in such instance? Applaud her behaviour and give her wads of naira notes? She had been beaten already before she was brought to the Admiral, and the Admiral did not further order her maltreatment in any way. The only thing the Admiral did was to engage her in a discussion all through which she was even rude to the Admiral. A 27 year old girl??? In my own opinion, the fact that the Admiral even decided to wade into the matter after having entered the Guest House, coming face to face with her, and advising her regards her behaviour was very, very, magnanimous of the Rear Admiral. Most Generals of the Armed forces as we all know wouldn’t even get involved in such lowly issues pertaining to the lower ranks at all.

2.     There has been public outcry against Admiral Arogundade’s use of Naval ratings and siren. The question to ask is – Did he acquire those illegally? Public commentators and journalists have gone on and on to insinuate that he ought not to be using ratings and siren when the fact of the matter is that all of those tools were directly issued to him by the Military High Command, as is normally issued to very senior military officers of certain ranks and postings considered to be strategic. Now, all of a sudden the all-knowing journalists and “loudspeaker lawyers” know more about the operations of the military than the military high command that gave out those movement tools to the General in the first instance! Or are they telling us that the Nigerian Military High Command is made up of dumbheads who do not have reasons for giving such protection to their Generals? Some knuckleheads were even wondering why Nigerian Military Generals were not being made to enter public buses and so on. Are we in an organised society like first world countries? So Generals who hold strategic troop command positions should be sitting amongst Area Boys, Armed Robbers, and the like? Incidentally, this so-called democracy that we have in this country is guaranteed by the Generals at the expense of their lives. What lunacy? What a country?

3.     I believe the young woman herself is nothing but a young beast in the making. A wild thug without any sense of decorum herself. And the media, loudspeaker lawyers, and the like have been encouraging her to take on uniformed authority, simply because we are in a so-called “democracy”. As far as I know, any woman with a decent enough upbringing could never, ever, have ventured to do what that girl did. A decent civilian will take the unjust assault on the chin first and then go to lodge an official complaint to higher or constituted authorities, more especially when she had a father that could even take up the matter right from the top in Abuja. Very surprising. If a 27 year old woman can jump on a uniformed military man in broad daylight and whip the man, then I would want to ask what type of children are we now raising in this country? As for me, the only individuals that have earned my pity in the entire saga are (a) the Rear Admiral whose name has been so maligned to high heavens worldwide for even taking pity on the girl, as if he was the one that ordered her beating (b) the very unfortunate husband to be of the young female thug in question.

4.     With regards to our so-called democracy, I am amazed that the coterie of the media, loudspeaker lawyers, and sections of the public are already behaving as if our democracy is already entrenched. A 9-year old democracy?? And we are all behaving as if we are such an advanced democratic country in the league of the US, France and Britain? Does anybody understand that it has taken those countries over a century of largely uninterrupted democracy to get to where they are? Nigerians do not even want to learn to walk in our democratic experiment, they just want to start to fly. Do people realise that our history and culture have largely defined our mental attitudes? Nigerians just want to wake up one morning and be in a position to decommission a Military General for some rating(s) assault on one individual girl? Are we suddenly America, France or the UK? In that case we might as well ask our Military Generals to start parking by the roadside for us civilians to pass, since “we are in a democracy…, ”

5.     For the avoidance of any doubt our democracy is just 9-years old. And it is already fractured with fatally rigged “landslide victories” everywhere. Our democracy is not even walking with two legs yet, talk less of sitting comfortably in an armchair like they have been able to achieve in the developed world. The Nigerian democracy, in my opinion, possesses only one leg, supported by crutches, and that single leg is even bandaged. To cap it all the ThisDay editorial comment (of 12 November 2008) was outrightly insulting to the military. Why on earth would ThisDay refer to members of the Nigerian Military as “mad dogs”? And the ThisDay editorial board thinks they have made a major point by directly insulting the military? We all should be very careful with the way we have begun to denigrate the military nowadays simply because “we are in a democracy”. The late MKO Abiola/Airforce saga of some years back readily comes to mind. If in just 9 years of democracy our biggest Newspaper houses have started referring to Military men as “mad dogs” then I wonder what names they would be calling the Military after 20 years of uninterrupted democracy. May I remind everyone that these are people who have voluntarily signed up their lives to protect you and I, so that we could go to parties, naming ceremonies, et al??? If these gallant people had refused to sign up for the military has it occurred to anyone that we would all have had to be conscripted? It happened even in the USA during the Vietnam war and the so-called “Human Rights Lawyers” couldn’t do anything about it. I, for one, would never, ever be a party to rubbishing the Nigerian Military in any form. Let anyone say what they may like.

6.     Governor Fashola of Lagos State simply played to the gallery initially over the matter by threatening publicly (in front of the media) to report the incident to the President. How do you listen to one party in a case involving several parties and jump up to say you are going to report to the President? Moreover is Admiral Arogundade a primary 3 pupil that a State Governor would want to report to a Headmaster? As a Senior Advocate of Nigeria he ought to know better! I am reliably informed that Fashola has now heard the other side of the story and it would be nice for journalists to accost him and check out what he now has to say on the incident.

7.     It just beats my imagination that we all tend to be celebrating a senseless action by a thuggish young woman. There is no doubt in my mind that the action of the first rating that hit her/her car with a horsewhip was wrong and quite condemnable but to now go as far as she did beggars belief. If the Naval ratings can be labelled as mad dogs, then what label do we ascribe to a young woman that puts up such behaviour in broad daylight? Ordinarily this is an action that no right thinking civilian would perform on a Policeman, talk less of the Military. I do not even think it is possible to try such dastardly act with the SSS, who are not even a uniformed organisation, without massive repercussions. And I am certain that even Colonel Okere (Rtd), who is the girl’s father and Head of Security at the National Assembly would not smile and shake hands with any civilian that engages any of his uniformed “maiguards” at the National Assembly in a scuffle and then proceeds to whip such guard.

8.     President Yar Adua has sent a memo to the Chief of Defence Staff over this matter. I am particularly amazed at the President’s decision to begin sending memos on a single individual case to the CDS. For starters do we know how many people are daily horse-whipped whenever the President or Governors’ entourages pass by? Do we know how many people are horse-whipped daily in the 36 States of the federation plus FCT? So how many memos does the President hope to send before the expiration of his tenure? Well, I can only wish the President the best of luck in his pursuit.

9.     I have found a good number of reactions to the incident, especially from Nigerians in the Diaspora to be very disturbing, and superbly ironical. Some contributors have actually called for Admiral Arogundade to be tied to a stake and shot! Some wished that the Admiral should be dragged on the floor for over 20 kilometres and sacked! Etc. Such comments are very, very, ironical indeed especially when you consider that the authors are the so-called “decent Nigerians” living abroad. Assuming the whole episode was even Admiral Arogundade’s fault, would it be appropriate for Nigerians abroad (who have been part and parcel of the First World democratic societies) to call for such actions? In my opinion, we Nigerians are all bunch hypocrites, wherever we may be. It simply shows the “Nigerian” in us all, as derived from our cultural history and environments that we all grew up in.

10.   Finally, the way the Nigerian media has handled this incident leaves a big dent on its credibility. As far as I can see there exists no professional investigative reporter in Nigeria. A cleverly edited video clip was circulated around on the internet (CNN i-report) and the whole media went ga-ga. No one bothered to find out what the other side of the story was, including the Lagos State Governor. We all forgot that we live in Nigeria, where even video shots never tell the whole truth! Moreover, the girl’s statement established the crucial fact that the Admiral was NOT present at the point where she was beaten, and neither was he aware of the incident UNTIL the Naval ratings had “arrested” the girl and taken her into custody at the Naval Guest House. The Admiral then handled the entire episode by offering her advice in addition to getting her a shirt to cover herself up with. The way the media had carried on as if it was the Admiral that personally ordered her brutalisation leaves a lot to be desired. I still need to be further enlightened as to the offence of the Admiral on this occasion. The media never went after the names of the Naval ratings that brutalised the girl simply because such names would never sell their newspapers. They preferred to immediately use an Admiral’s name so they can make good profits – Haba!

 

I do hope that this article of mine would be given equal prominence like the media have been giving to all other stories concerning the incident. Mine is a completely different perspective on the issue and I stand up to be counted on the side of Rear Admiral Harry Olufemi Arogundade on this occasion. Call me a Military apologist if you wish!

 

I rest my case.

 

Thank You.

 

 

Niji [/b]

Response to mail from Niji by kola(surnames have been deleted)


Hi Mr Niji xxxx
 
Granted that you know the Admiral and that you ended up holding brief for him, but shouldn't you have behaved decently and give the battered lady a bit of respect, why calling her names such as thuggish, why placing Admirals and the likes above all and almost close to God, everyone has chosing the professsion he does because of interest he has with the consequences known. Besides, who told you that Nigerian soldiers especially the officers joined the force primarily to indeed defend the country, except if you are not a true Nigerian, majority did so because of the good life and power that the force offers.
 
In the developed world such as in UK, the armed forces do beg their citizens to join them because indeed these people go in to SERVE and not to amass wealth or use the power they possess to victimise their fellow citizens.
 
I will not want to fall into the same pitfall you fell into when initially you laboriously tried to shield the fact that you were set out to defend Admiral Arogundade, I am not going to defend the lady because I am well aware that it is only in Nigeria that it is very difficult to ascertain the truth. For instance, the President of the country Usman Yar'adua was said to have gone for lesser hadji a while ago when indeed he went for medical treatment, how do you ascertain the truth in this case when there were conflicting stories emanating from different government spokesmen. This is just a taste of Nigeria that we all know so therefore I will not attempt to waste my time on taking side with either, we always chose who we want to believe.
 
Nevertheless granted that the lady was wrong in 'wrestling' with the naval ratings, will you please tell me  whether a horsewhip is an official weapon issued by the 'MILITARY HIGH COMMAND'  of Nigeria as part of the sirens and ratings you said were allocated to army generals?.
 
You were quick to point out that if she felt unjustly assaulted by a uniformed military man, she should have gone to lodge a complaint with the Civil Police or Naval police or even the media, please how effective has this ever been in our own 'Dear ' country. Of course her choice of response to the high handed ratings were wrong if I chose to believe your record of what you said the lady told the media but you would have helped your course if for just once you had berated the ratings for using the horsewhip on her at all, a lady when they could easily have subdued her by handcuffing her but chose to degrade and drag her to their masters. I would have thought that the decent thing to do at this time would have been to take her to a police station and lodge a complaint but they will not do that because in Nigeria's way,'it is a job done' already.
 
You kept on referring to her age as if she was too young saying a 27 year old girl publicly whipping a uniformed soldier,, the use of 'whipping' in this line is 'simply yours only' and meant to cast the soldiers as victims when indeed I can say that they are the oppressors for their high-handedness.
 
You then went further to say that they descended on her to teach her a lesson, I hope you know the gramatical meaning of to descend on a person [lady] in this instance, this is where several people all at once inflicted punishment on a less capable person and then you said 'to teach her a lesson' meaning a punitive measure and a warning to others watching that same measure of punishment will be meted to you if you dare do same.
 
On the response of the Admiral, you mentioned and seemed to support the show of pity on the lady by him and that the Admiral said that the ratings would have killed her because of her confrontation with them, this suggest to me that you and the officer believed that the death of the lady would have been deemed legitimate, you need to be educated that this would have been blue murder or in the least manslaughter because she was defenceless.
 
In case you do not know, even in supposed war zone like Iraq, numerous US and British soldiers are being prosecuted for their role in what the authorities termed unlawful killing such as killing defenceless Iraqis, this is in an atmosphere full of hostilities with suicide killings every hour at the height of the war how much more in a peaceful time on an ordinary road in Lagos.
 
You should not in any way compare the behaviour of Nigerian soldiers with their counterparts in the West because the REAL rule of law is here in UK and not in Nigeria where public officers who were said to have amassed wealth while in office are still seen rubbing minds and indeed sitting with those in power. It is only in Nigeria and may be most Third world countries that the militarymen live much more above their means. You need to read this week saharareporters.com to see display of wealth by the IBB family as they were pictured in their private family plane, this is same IBB who retired as a military president of the country.
 
It is the military and other past rulers of the country that did not make using the public transport system by the elites of the nation a joy nor done so much to reduce the hold-ups on our road. Anyway this forum is not meant for us to talk about the ills of the nation but to specifically address the robust response meted to a lady accused of not giving way to a passing general. Of course the lady's apparent show of stubborness as reported was predicated on her viewing the use of horsewhip on her like an animal as degrading.
 
 Let me state that I do not condone the fact that it was reported that the lady said that she took the horsewhip to beat the soldiers as well even though this could have been just a stroke by someone fighting injustice nevertheless, what we should ask ourselves as well is that why should our militarymen continue to carry horsewhip around when they can easily use their number as strenght to arrest any person considered to be unruly.
 
Languages such as calling the lady a young beast or as a wild thug are uncalled for and generally unguarded by Mr Fadipe. Your piece below is nothing but a celebration of brutality. If you want to blame the lady for squaring up to a militaryman, fine but your choice of words are reckless, our soldiers should rather be taught on how to handle petulance such as this [if at all] and not to be encouraged to 'carry on'.
 
The position of Niji Fadipe as seen below is nothing but an encouragement to the ratings and their counterparts in other forces to continue to mete beating people with maximum effect for any act of challenge to their authority, we cannot continue this way, the use of horsewhip or any form of beating by the militarymen nothwithstanding the amount of provocations at all should not be allowed to continue, they have the power of arrest especially with their numbers.
 
Kola xxxxx

I think the key question is 'What was Admiral Arogundade going to do at the guest house?' , this should teach people like him from filing young girls anyhow