Female Corper Battered by Her Colleague, Seeking for Justice

So about two weeks ago, a female corps member Temitope Adedewe, was battered and her two teeth removed with a hammer by a male corps member? What could have led to such madness?

Two weeks later the National Youth Service Corps headquarters Abuja is yet to officially react.

Also her NYSC discharge certificate, which was withheld for purportedly breaching the NYSC code of conduct and reporting the matter to the police in Arochukwu, Abia State, where the incident happened, is yet to be issued to her. 

The Nation reports that there is strong allegation that her assailant, Oluwabusiyi Adeola Bolarinde is already studying for his Master’s at the University of Ibadan, which could not have been possible if he didn’t produce his NYSC discharge certificate.

The corps’ Director of Public Relations, Mrs. Abosede Aderibigbe was not available for comments on the issue. Efforts to reach her on phone were also abortive, as her phones were switched off and she did not respond to text messages.

A source at the Welfare Department in Abuja, who spoke on condition of anonymity, admitted that they are aware of the case and have started looking into it.

He said steps are being taken to resolve the issue, and a concrete decision is expected to be reached on the matter next week.

Meanwhile, the victim of the battery, Miss Adedewe said she is yet to get any concrete information from the Abuja office or anywhere. According to her, she only got a call from a lady, who claimed to be of the NYSC Abuja head-office. The caller who initially did not reveal her identity or position later gave her name as Benedict E. She refused to reveal her official position and requested the aggrieved ex-corps member to come to Abuja to tell her side of the story, since they have commenced investigation on the matter.

Miss Adedewe said the lady told her they had visited the Abia State Zonal office in Umuahia and the venue of the incident in Arochukwu on a fact-finding mission. She said while there, they had asked Mrs. Akuma, one of the zonal office’s staff and a principal player in the issue to send for her and that she said all attempts to reach her from Umuahia had failed.

Adedewe however saidrevealed that she never got any call or messages from Mrs. Akuma. She also said the caller from the NYSC behaved in a suspicious manner by refusing to disclose her identity.

However, Mrs. Busayo Obisakin, facilitator of Women’s Inspiration Development (WID), the NGO that had originally taken up her case and petitioned the NYSC, advised her not to make any trip to Abuja but to insist on telling her side of the story on phone.

She said the caller had asked her for some phone numbers, including that of the nurse who treated her at the hospital in Arochukwu, which she said she did not have. Adedewe wondered why she didn’t visit the hospital and get the nurse’s phone number, while she was in Arochukwu.

According to her, the caller directed her to stop any media attention on it as they are already looking into the matter.

Hmmm...something is just not right about this matter.