Ruth Ogunleye, a former soldier with the Nigerian Army, has spoken out about her traumatic experience of sexual assault and harassment at the hands of her superior officer while serving in the Medical Corps at the Nigerian Army Cantonment Medical Centre, Ojo, Lagos. Her story has prompted other female soldiers to come forward with similar experiences, despite their fears of retaliation.
Ogunleye, who served in the unit in 2022, shared her ordeal in an interview, recounting how her commanding officer, a colonel (name withheld), began making unwanted advances shortly after her arrival.
“I had only been in the unit for three weeks when he started sending me gifts, which I refused to accept,” she said.
The situation escalated on February 27, 2022, when the colonel summoned her to a hotel and offered her N50,000 in exchange for sex, promising to help her gain admission to 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,” Ogunleye recalled.
After rejecting his advances, Ogunleye said the colonel became vindictive, subjecting her to extra duties, unjust punishment, and eventually resorting to injecting her with Largactil, a drug used to sedate mentally ill patients.
“He would either point a gun at me or have soldiers pin me down before injecting me. After being injected, I would be unconscious for days, completely unable to function,” she explained.
She recounted how the colonel would sexually assault her while she was sedated and then order that she be placed in a body bag and taken to a psychiatric hospital.
“This happened several times. He didn’t allow me to attend any military courses, denied me access to school, and even prevented me from visiting my parents during festive periods,” she said.
Ogunleye also described a particularly harrowing incident when the then-President of the Nigerian Army Officers’ Wives Association (NAOWA), Mrs. Salamatu Yahaya, visited the cantonment to commission a maternity ward. She was lying unconscious in the colonel’s office at the time.
“He knew very well that the NAOWA president would inspect his office. He then ordered a doctor in the unit to give me an injection that neutralized the Largactil injection, and when I regained consciousness, I found myself naked,” she said.
The former soldier’s efforts to report the abuse and seek redress were thwarted by the colonel, who used his influence to block her applications for military courses and labeled her as mentally ill.
“He continued to ensure that I couldn’t progress in my career, either by preventing me from attending courses or by blocking my promotions,” she said.
Ogunleye said that despite contacting higher authorities, including the current Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. C.G. Musa, her complaints were initially ignored.
“He advised me to ‘endure’ the situation and did not take any concrete steps to address the issue,” she revealed.
Eventually, she sought legal advice and submitted a redress request for the third time. She also visited the Provost Commander, Brigadier-General M.L. Abubakar, who was surprised by her story and assured her of her right to seek justice. However, when her case was brought before the board, they dismissed her concerns without reviewing any evidence or calling for witnesses.
In January 2024, after sharing her story on social media, the Nigerian Army Military Police launched an investigation. The Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, got involved and took her for various tests, which confirmed that she was not using drugs and had no mental illness. During the investigation, Ogunleye expressed her desire to leave the military.
“I told [the minister] that I no longer had any interest in continuing my military career,” she said.
She was eventually discharged on medical grounds, which entitled her to pension benefits.
After going public with her story, Ogunleye revealed that other female soldiers have reached out to her with similar stories of abuse.
“They told me about their experiences, and I shared their stories on my page,” she said, though she refused to reveal their identities due to their fears of losing their jobs.
Ogunleye’s father also tried to intervene on her behalf, calling the colonel to ask why he was treating his daughter unfairly. The colonel’s response was chilling:
“He told my father that I should ‘obey the last order.’ It was at that moment that I told my father that he wanted to be sleeping with me.”
Ogunleye has dared the Nigerian Army to publish the report of the investigation, confident in the strength of her evidence.
“During the investigation, the military police even confided in me that I had won the case. So I dared the Nigerian Army to make the report public because I believe in the strength of my evidence,” she said.