…At Armed Forces Centre Resettlement, Her Phones Seized
…She Buried Fetish Things In Barrack, Nobody Beat Her -Centre Denies Allegations
A woman, Ifeyinwa Emeka, has alleged being battered, dehumanised, and her breasts groped by soldiers at the Armed Forces Centre Resettlement, Charity, Oshodi, Lagos State.
This was even as the Centre denied ever beating or groping her breasts.
Ifeyinwa Emeka narrates her story thus: “It all began in the year 1993, my late mother bought a shop in the Nigeria Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, Charity Oshodi, Lagos State, Mammy market.
“All the shops in the market then were make-shift shops built with zinc and wood. When my mother died in 1998, I continued with her trade, along with my siblings.
In the year 2003, the make-shift shops were demolished and allocations were sold to people who were interested at the rate of N5,000.00, which I bought three allocations and personally built them.
In 2015, orders were given that all traders selling at the mammy market should move away from a particular part of the market, which was where I had my three shops. I had to pack my things to store in another shop whose area was not affected by the instruction.
“Some shops were demolished, but my three shops were not demolished; they are still standing, however, it was turned into pens for rearing cows.
“When the incident happened, I kept my things in the shop of an Army General. Unfortunately, he died, and his family decided to sell off his shops. My things were moved out, and during that period, I was not in Lagos.
“After several displacements, a small space was given to me by Shola, the Assistant Mammy Market leader and another soldier to keep my two deep freezers and one standing freezer. I was told to protect them, which I did by covering them with a canopy.
“Later, I discovered some people were defecating, bathing, and urinating beside my freezers, which could cause rusting, damage them. At a point, I caught a woman there urinating. She pleaded with me, I forgave her, and I did not report her.
“I have also seen a boy bathing there. I did not want to be the cause of anyone being asked to leave the Mammy market if I reported, so I kept quiet. One day, I noticed the freezers were getting rusted due to the constant use of different unseen substances.
“I decided to do something to scare people from the location where my freezers were kept. First, I used protective substances on my freezers by rubbing condemned oil on the body of the freezers to repel rust and poured wood ash on urine and defecates seen, to check the odours.
“I called Mr Shola and reported to him, who was the Mammy Market Assistant Head, because the main market leader ( Magajia) was on maternity leave then.
“Shola repeatedly told me that he would do something about it, but he never did. I had to make a scarecrow to scare people from answering the call of nature there. People later termed the scarecrow as juju.
“On the 17th of March 2025, I went for a farm supervision at Ikorodu, while on the farm, I put my phone on silent mode. I noticed missed calls after I was through with my farm work. By the time I saw the missed calls from Shola and others, I was on my way home.
“I headed straight to the Mammy market to attend to the emergency calls from Shola. When I got there, it was at about 7:25 pm. I went to look for Shola, but he was not in the shop. I met a lady whose shop is not far from his and asked him, she replied that I should wait, that he was around, or better still, I should go and see Magajia.
“Magajia is the overall leader of the mammy market. I didn’t know she had resumed. I went to Magajia’s shop. The moment she saw me, she said she was busy and that I should wait for her. I stepped aside. I heard her making a call, saying she was not around.
“I went to wait by Buhari Hall and not up to 10 minutes, two soldiers came directly to meet me, one was in uniform, with a military police badge, and one in civil clothes. They asked if I was Ifeyinwa, and I said yes, and they said I was under arrest. I said okay, let me make a call to inform my people, but the one on uniform refused.
“He immediately collected my Vivo Android Phone and drove me to the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre Provost Detachment. The moment we alighted from the bike, there was another military police officer at the counter, whom I pleaded with this time to let me call my former parish catechist or the Parish priest, which they vehemently refused.
“I was ordered to pour the contents of my handbag on the floor, which I did immediately. This contained my undies and some other items. The military police picked up my other Techno phone, my torchlight, my power bank, my HD spy camera, my two cords, my National identification Number slip, my passport photograph and a 32 GB memory card.
“As I was about to take my eyeglasses, the one in civil clothes gave me a thunderous slap between my left eye and ear, snatched my glasses and kicked me several times. He treated me as if I were a criminal. They escorted, asked me to take my handbag to one dark room.
“I was taken to the cell, the soldier on mufti was abusing and laying curses on me and my family members for spoiling his drinking spree with his friends, which I believe was his major anger against me.
“After about 45 minutes, I was brought out of the cell and taken to an interrogation room. It happened that the air conditioner in the room was dripping water, and I was told to mop up the water. I refused because my head was heavy due to the beating and slap they gave me.
“He said he would make sure I didn’t leave with my complete body. An hour plus later, some other military officers came to the provost detachment. It was then that I got to know that the soldier who slapped me was the Provost supervisor, while the other officers who joined were the Provost officer, the Commanding Officer Administration (CO Admin), the Centre Photographer and RP Sergeant.
“They asked if I was the person who placed an object near my freezers, and I responded yes. They asked why, and I explained that it was just to scare those who were defecating and urinating near my freezers. I told them it was a mere scarecrow.
“Right in my presence, the CO Admin made a call, and after his call, he said the Director of Admin instructed that I should move the freezers immediately. I was asked to move the freezers that night because the incident started at 8 pm, and it was then that they gave me one of my phones to make calls.
“Right in their presence, I called some drivers that I know, but none were ready to come out because it was late, and we were inside the barracks. All efforts to get a driver were futile. They collected my phone again, and the centre photographer was called to come with his camera to take my pictures so that it would be placed at the Centre’s gate. I asked why they wanted to do that, and they said I should not question them.
“I refused to allow them to snap me, I asked them if I was a criminal, the Provost officer and CO Admin gave the order that I should be tied up. The two MPs held me by my neck and pressed my breasts, and the photographer, they tied and beat me. After forcefully taking my pictures, they were contemplating keeping me in the cell till the next day.
“That was when the Duty Officer stepped in from outside and started making an inquiry, asking what was happening. They told him, so he pleaded on my behalf that they should allow me to go. They took me to the Mammy market with the duty van that night, and as I was removing the scarecrow, they started beating me. I was weak and dizzy.
“They drove back to the Provost, where I was asked for my phones to be returned to me. The Provost Supervisor said if I spoke to him, he would strangulate me and throw my corpse on the expressway, so that it would be assumed I was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
“I was pushed out of the centre gate around 10:45 pm. I was lucky to get a vehicle going towards my destination at such an odd hour of the night. When I got home, I was rushed to the nearby hospital for medical treatment.
“Information I got is that my picture was placed at the entrance of the Barrack gate. This is my story on how I was dehumanised, humiliated and beaten up by soldiers of the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement centre charity, Oshodi, Lagos.”
Our reporter reached out to the Public Relations Officer, Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, Commander, Patrician Ochei, who promised to look into the matter.
To ensure transparency, Ochei asked one of the officers, who witnessed the drama that played out that day between Ifeyinwa Emeka and the soldiers, to speak with the reporter.
The soldier, who said that he said he was Nambi-Ajula, Admin Officer, Provost Detachment, insisted that nobody touched Ifeyinwa Emeka, let alone physically assaulted and groped her breasts.
He recounted: “We are aware of her case. How would I put it? She had access to our Mammy Market. Years before this year, she was involved in these fetish activities. Shops were never allocated to her. It was just a space that was given to her.
“She just came into Mammy Market through one or two persons, and a space was given to her to stay. Then she became involved in fetish activities. She buried things on the ground. Then our attention was called, and she was chased away.”
According to the officer, this was not the first time, Ifeyinwa Emeka was caught in fetish activities. He explained that the first time it happened, which was some years ago, personnel who were there chased her away.
When Ifeyinwa Emeka allegedly discovered that those who chased her away had been posted out of the Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, she returned to the mammy market.
The officer said, “This time around, we are the ones on the ground. When our attention was called that she had done the fetish activities, buried things on the ground, we went with her and ordered her to remove them. She removed those things. She was behaving like somebody who was insane.
“I was surprised by those things that she brought out. She removed those things, and we told her to pack her things and leave the mammy market. We don’t want her in the barracks.
“It was because she had done this sort of thing before, and she promised that time to remove her property, but she did not; that was why we held onto her phones.
“When she comes to carry her things out of the mammy market and barracks, we will return her phones. We took her picture and posted it at the gate, showing that we do not want her in the barracks.
“She was not beaten, not punched, or slapped. We don’t manhandle people here. I was on the ground that day. It is only her phones that are with us, the others of her property are at the mammy market. The reason for keeping the phone is for her to come back and pack her things.
“We, the provost detachment, are called at any point to ensure law and order, both at the mammy market, within our quarters or in offices. That is our responsibility. She brought things into the barracks that were not allowed, and she’s even a private person.”
A human rights activist, Mr Neye Solomon, who is fighting to attain justice for Ifeyinwa Emeka, Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre Personnel were lying, stressing and insisting that Ifeyinwa Emeka was seriously brutalised.
He explained that the woman was rushed to the general hospital, Isolo, after the battering.
He said: “She has spent over N700,000 and she is still going for medical treatment. She said that the person who slapped her was the Provost Supervisor, and he was also the person who stomped on her recommended glasses, breaking them.
“There were two MPs on duty on the 17th of March 2025, while one of them kicked her on the waist when she refused them to take her picture, which was later placed at the gate to entering the barracks. The Provost Officer, who is in charge of the whole detachment, alongside the Commanding officer, ordered that she should be tied with a rope so that they could take her picture, because she was struggling and did not want them to take her picture. They tied her like an animal.
“It was through the intervention of the Duty officer who pleaded on her behalf; he told the personnel that since the woman had complied with all and maltreatment they subjected her to, there was no need to further lock her up.”
Solomon said other items collected from the Ifenyiwa Emeka are, HD spy camera, a power bank, a NIN slip, a 32GB memory card, an HD Torch light, 2 phone cords, and 12 passport photos.
The activist said that the recommended glasses damaged by the soldiers cost N58,000.
