Disquiet now pervades the Nigerian Air force Base, Minna as more junior officers are being subjected to unwarranted punishment and torture for daring to comment on the dismissal of their colleagues, Deekae SK by a senior female officer, Mrs Bamisaiye who is said to have a deep hatred for the junior officer over some irreconcilable issues.
Daily Independent reported that in their Thursday 21st April 2022 edition, titled: “Scandal Rocks Minna Air force Base”, on how Bamisaiye victimizes junior officers for refusing to do her bidding or dares to raise eyebrows over her decisions even if it runs contrary to Armed Forces rules of engagement.
However, the many allegations against Bamisaiye ranging from subjecting both civilian staff and junior officers under her to inhuman treatment such as engaging them to do house chores as domestic staff and other forms of molestation could not be conformed because she rebuffed efforts by our correspondent to speak with her on the many allegations against her. Latest of such abuse of office by, Mrs. Bamisaiye who is believed to be working with some senior officers within the fold is the is the pronounced dismissal of Deekae from the base without due process for refusing to do her biddings contrary to the rules of engagement in the Nigerian Armed Forces and against global military ordinances. Based on this allegation of rape which was never reported to either the conventional police or the Air police/Commander on the day of the alleged incidence which happened over a year ago Deekae was under her supervision subjected to all manner of inhuman treatment for close to two weeks. Without hearing from Deekae, our correspondent learnt that Bamisaiye, with strong backing of officers of her kind ordered that Deekae be immediately picked and locked up in a guard room where he spent almost two weeks without food, thoroughly tortured and exposed to other dehumanizing conditions. The fish business incident whereby she allegedly vowed to deal with, Deekae SK, Bamisaiye’s extra ordinance mien is said to be increasing by the day. for instance, on receipt of a report from a particular civilian lady believed to be working with her out rightly and personally announced the dismissal of Deekae from the base on trumped up charges and without recourse to abuse of due processes. A lady by the name, Eucharia said to be a former girlfriend to the latest victim, daily independent findings indicated had reported to Bamisaiye how Deekae raped her during an incident that transpired between them over 14 months ago. Based on this allegation of rape of his girlfriend which was never reported to either the conventional police or the Air police/state Commander NAF Minna on the day of the alleged sexual assault said to have happened over a year ago, Deekae was not only denied fair hearing, but locked up in a guard room for days and later pronounced expelled from the NAF by Bamisaiye and her cohorts. This singular act raised the curiosity and fears among the ranks of the Minna NAF base, especially close allies of Deekae including some of them currently placed under guard room for daring to question why junior officers must survive at the mercy of superiors even when it has to do with issues or personal interests/lives being undermined by some superior officers. Already, some junior officers including those suspected to be close to Deekae are currently serving various forms of punishment, including but not limited to being locked up in the guard room being tortured for no known offence than expressing reservations against the way and manner Bamisaiye’s ill treatment of junior soldiers who are not in her good books. After spending 11th day in the guard room, Deekae was allegedly brought out, marched to his quarter where he was ordered to pick his personal effects, leaving behind all his military paraphernalia and booted out of the base like a common criminal with a rider that, ‘you are dismissed, never to be seen around the base’, on the orders of Bamisaiye. This singular action has attracted more condemnations against NAF as it is believed to be one of the ways most senior officers who ought to be acting with the highest level of caution or expected to be discreet in their official conducts descend so low to engage in nefarious acts of intimidation, harassments and victimization of junior officers without recourse to the implications of their actions directly on the victims and the larger society they end up in. There are however many Deekaes out there who after acquiring amongst the best training as a soldier are subjected to most unimaginable and dehumanizing experiences and left to languish across military formations/cantonments or forced out into the larger society whereby some of them in their desperation to survive engage in nefarious activities to avenge their anger and frustrations on innocent citizens/soft targets they are supposedly trained to protect. Because of the overbearing dispositions and inhuman tendencies of superior officers like Bamisaiye and her cohorts across Nigeria’s military formations, many skilled young personnel have been misplaced as most of them in order to survive the odds deploy their skills wrongly even under the watch of the Chief of Air Staff, who seemed not caring to know about what goes on therein or to check increasing forms of abuses of junior officers by superiors, a scenario that is now threatening the very foundation of entire Nigerian Armed Forces. In a bid to nail her latest victim, Bamisaiye and her cohorts, including his former girlfriend orchestrated trumped up charges that confined Deekae to a guard room for almost two weeks without first reporting to the Air police or to the Commanders’ officer, but walked straight to Bamisaiye’s office who after discussing with the complainant, took her to the Commanders’ office and went further ahead to order for his being locked up in a guard room same day. As Deekae’s dismissal by Bamisaiye and her cohorts is however causing disquiet at the Minna NAF Base, many junior officers are suffering the overbearing tendencies including constant and unjustifiable confinements to guardroom, starvation with hard labour under flimsy excuses and over issues that are not related to official misconduct or biasness over issues such as the case between an officer and her civilian girlfriend, according to findings led to the dismissal of Deekae. Deekae SK, according to Bamisaye’s blank sheet ‘Order’, believed to have been hurriedly concocted out of desperation to get her target out of her way at all cost, reads, ‘you stand dismissed and never to be seen around the Nigerian Air Force Base, Minna, it was gathered was done as a punishment over an issue with his former girlfriend. Daily Independent findings however reveals that, Deekae, a once close ally to Bamisaiye, fell apart with her sometimes last year after failed attempt to force him to buy 5 pieces of dead cat fish for N10, 000 by daring to say he has no such money to buy the fish. That singular act of refusing to do the biddings of ‘Madam Bamisaiye’, as she is fondly called our correspondent learnt made her develop long deep rooted hatred for Deekae and have since then never hidden her desperation to get the junior officer out of her way at all cost while the victim on his part in order to survive the pitfalls tries by all means to avoid this now senior female antagonist before she finally succeeded in easing him out. In order to forcefully subdue and subject him under her control, Bamisaye is said to have at a time detailed her ‘boys’ to monitor his minute-by-minute steps and movements within and outside the facility and report to her, an assignment that is said to have been meticulously complied with to its logical conclusion till the day she succeeded in ‘dismissing’ Deekae. Unconfirmed report also had it that apart from close monitoring, Bamisaye under the guise of suspecting his involvement in illegal business dealings used her influence and closeness to the top management of one of the new generation Banks in Minna to block his accounts thereby subjecting him (Deekae) to more terrible conditions of hunger and penury as he has not been able to access his accounts hence have been surviving on goodwill from friends before his eviction and till date. Interestingly, both of them, it was learnt had worked at many NAF formations and later found themselves together in Minna after Deekae attending to some specific assignments in Maiduguri and other formations and that makes one to wonder why the sudden enmity to the point of the Bamisaiye allegedly threatening Deekae’s life. Meanwhile, a Human Rights lawyer, Gavers Ihematulam speaking on the implications of the cold war between superior officers and their subordinates and other forms of abuses against junior officers, using Deekae as a case in hand said he feared the possibility of more young soldiers receiving same treatment under same circumstances and they in turns into nuisance and becoming security threats by turning to the larger society they are forced into to avenge their angst. If the senior officer in her capacity as having retinue of junior officers under her control and at her beck and calls is having personal issues with her juniors as she is said to be the one in charge of assigning duties for the officers/their deployments, then she should know how to separate personal interests from official responsibilities to avoid clash of interests. On the other hand, there cannot be smoke without fire. The possibility that Bamisaiye may have been deeply wronged or hurt by Deekae or any of the junior officers is there, but again humanly speaking, trying to destroy him or any other junior officer for fallen apart with her to the extent of trying to ruin their career just to erase personal pains inflicted on her may amount to causing more harm which could be of grave damage to the NAF and to larger extent, the entire Nigerian Armed Forces. I also learnt that Bamisaiye do engage some of the junior officers to do domestic chores for her including the ‘odd jobs’ of dealing with people under her that dares to challenge her authorities at the Base, these things are common, and that is where I am surprised that the Chief of Air Staff come in and give clear demarcations between core official privileges senior officers enjoy from subordinates. She is not the state Commander, she is not in the Air police unit, why then should she be the one handling a case brought against an officer by a civilian? If what we hearing is true, then Deekae maybe one of such professional abuses by senior officers against their juniors and which if not properly managed could lead to violent clash between the two segments and such is capable of affecting the civilian populace negatively, Ihematulam is of the views that NAF highest command should have his eyes on what is going on across its formations to ensure that mercenaries after being trained on how to handle even the most dangerous lethal weapons are provoked to the point of being pushed to the point of contemplating mutiny against overbearing superiors, especially the female folks. Still nursing the pains of being forced out of the system without proper de-briefing, dismissal procedures and disarmed to fit into new life outside soldier work, the Human Rights lawyer argued that most of the young soldiers who may be psychological challenged could pose as potential treats to the larger society by re-grouping and forming underground/undercover cells of secret societies/cults waging war against constituted authorities and the entire citizenry thereby frustrating efforts at ending security challenges. With current security challenges, it will be dangerous to witness in-fighting amongst military personnel and the only way to avoid such is to prevent the triggers that can come in the form of in-fighting between junior officers and their superiors. Again, whereby there are cases breeding bad blood, the cause should be sort out and nipped in the bud once and for all. Most importantly, the Nigerian Armed Forces should amongst others ensure proper scrutinizing/screening of personnel at entry points to weed out persons with questionable character/criminal records in addition to making sure that they are well remunerated as a way of resisting the temptations of indulging in corrupt practices which would also bring to the barest minimal suspicion capable of degenerating into in-fighting between junior officers and their superiors which often lead to threats to life of any of them.