Ibraheem Musa
5 November 2009
Kaduna — The Chief Of Army Staff Lt General Abdulrahman Dambazzau has ordered an investigation into the alleged assault on Hajiya Zarah Malah Yarema, the Kaduna-based banker who was beaten by military personnel more than a month ago at Potiskum, Daily Trust learnt yesterday.
According to a source, the army chief asked 1st Mechanised Division to handle the matter and last Sunday, Brigadier-General A.B Umaru, the Director of Military Intelligence (DMI) was in Kaduna to meet the victim. "However, Zara couldn't see him because of certain constraints", he added.
On Monday, the banker got a call directing her to go to the Dalet Barracks, headquarters of 1st Mechanised Division, the source continued. On getting there around 1pm, she was interrogated by the head of Military Police and another officer who was in mufti, the source disclosed, adding that she narrated what was in her petition to the army chief. Afterwards, Zarah was given a form in order to summarize her ordeal in writing. In her petition to General Dambazzau, the banker narrated how she was allegedly battered and brutalized on September 19, 2009 in Potiskum on her way to Maiduguri to spend the sallah with her family. Her alleged offence was that she dared to overtake a convoy of three cars around Jama'are in Bauchi State.
When Zara and her siblings stopped at Jama're to pray and freshen up, the convoy comprising a white Toyota Avalon, a grey-coloured Toyota Sienna (space bus) and a Nigerian Army Peugeot 406, zoomed passed them. However, Zarah caught up with them a few kilometers to Potiskum and trailed the convoy right through the town.
According to the petition, Zarah overtook them at the town's outskirts. The Toyota Avalon gathered speed and overtook her from the right side of the road and blocked her way and brushed the left fender of Zarah's car in the process. A senior army officer who was in mufti, came out and kicked her bumper, the banker said.
His two batmen dragged her out of her car and started beating her. Zarah's sister who attempted to come to her rescue, was equally beaten. One of the soldiers was' 'kicking my legs with his boots and flogging us (with his belt) at the same time, while the other one continued giving me slaps," Zarah wrote in her petition.
In addition to the beating, the army officer allegedly rained abuses on her, calling Zarah an idiot and a stupid woman. His wife who was in the Toyota Sienna, accused Zarah and her siblings of lacking courtesy and said they should apologise to their attackers because uniformed men are not to be played with. Meanwhile, the army officer kept insisting that she must repair his car.
After a while, a crowd of other motorists gathered around the scene and "some well meaning Nigerians including a member of Sokoto House of Assembly intervened and the beating finally stopped," Zarah said. Afterwards, the officer ordered that Zarah should be escorted to Maiduguri by the soldiers so that she will repair his car upon getting to her destination. However, the convoy increased speed and disappeared before getting to Maiduguri. The female banker sustained injuries as a result of the alleged assault, the source told Daily Trust. "Zarah is still having hearing difficulties;her ears are infectedand it is oozing out a yellowish discharge. She can also not see properly", the source added.
Meanwhile, when she went to the Defence Headquarters to complain, Brigadier A.K Abubakar, the Army's Director Legal Services, allegedly subjected Zarah to inconsequential questions, asking why she was driving to Maiduguri instead of allowing her younger brother who was in the car, to drive.
He also allegedly asked her whether there were witnesses when the incident happened, to which Zarah said they were and she also said that her brother and sister saw what happened. He dismissed the latter point, arguing that she and her siblings were one. In summary, he advised her to drop the case as nothing would come out of it, Undaunted, Zarah petitioned the army chief.
The Public Relations Officer of the 1st Mechanised Division, Col. Dabiri told Daily Trust on phone yesterday that he was not aware of the case and was on his way to Katsina.
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