Foreign
A panel of three justices of ECOWAS Court led by Justice Edward Amoako Asante will on Friday, April 30, 2021, deliver judgment in a suit filed by an aircraftwoman, alleging the violation of her fundamental human rights and right to physical and mental health through sexual assault and rape by her superior officer.
The Court has in an earlier ruling delivered by Justice Dope Atoki, the judge rapporteur, dismissed the preliminary objection of the Defendant that the matter lacked a cause of action and that the State of Nigeria cannot be held liable for acts and omissions of its agents.
The Court also ruled that in the given circumstances, the matter cannot be statute-barred as posited by Defendant.
The Court had on Wednesday, 3rd March 2021 heard the evidence of the plaintiff, Aircraftwoman Beauty Igbobie Uzezi, who alleged that the assault and rape by one Flight Lieutenant B.S Vibelko of the Nigerian Air Force as well as the subsequent handling of her complaint by officials of the force violated her right to liberty, work, freedom of movement and fair hearing following her unlawful detention and dismissal in 2015.
In suit No:ECW/CCJ/APP/32/19 the Applicant represented by her counsel, Marshal Abubakar averred that she was enlisted into the Nigerian Air force in August 15, 2010, with Service No NAF10/25157F and stationed at Nigerian Air force, Directorate of Air Ikeja, Lagos State.
She added that she had put in more than 5 years of active and meritorious service before the persistent victimization culminating in her purported dismissal.
The Applicant averred that prior to her purported dismissal, she served in various military formations, including the Nigerian Air force Base, Kaduna, the Base Services Wing, Abuja, and lastly the Air Service Wing, Ikeja, Lagos on military assignment.
The Applicant averred that on May 17, 2011, she was sexually assaulted, brutally raped, and de-flowered by the superior officer, Flt Lt Vibelko, resulting in her being admitted to the accident and emergency ward in 345 Aeromedical Hospital Kaduna.
She further averred that as a result, her health suffered greatly, physically and in status, and contacted severe sexually transmitted infections which resulted in chronic pelvic inflammatory disease resulting in a solid mass growth close to her uterus.
The statement by the ECOWAS Commission said that Januaria Costa was also on the panel of Justice.
– April 29, 2021 @ 18:49 GMT
Tags: ECOWAS Court to deliver judgment in a suit involving Aircraftwoman and superior officer Friday
