A Nigerian Army court-martial sitting in Ibadan, the Oyo state
capital, has dismissed a 38-year-old
Regimental Medical Doctor after he was found guilty of having s*x with his fellow officer’s wife.
Regimental Medical Doctor after he was found guilty of having s*x with his fellow officer’s wife.
Nigerian Army officers
A Regimental Medical Doctor who was found guilty of having s*x with
his fellow officer’s wife, was on Wednesday dismissed by a Nigerian
Army court-martial which sat at the Adekunle Fajuyi Cantonment of the 2
Division, Ojo, Ibadan in Oyo State.
According to an exclusive report on Premium Times, the court
slammed a two-count charge of illicit s*xual relationship and
unprofessional conduct on Lieutenant Musa Mustapha Bature, and accused
him of taking advantage of a colleague’s wife who was supposed to be his
patient.
The 38-year old officer, whose fate would be finally decided by a
military council, which statutorily ratifies such sentences, reportedly
confessed to the crime, and pleaded with military authorities to give
him corrective punishment rather than a terminal one.
Sources familiar with the trial said the accused, a native of Kebbi
State, had a notorious history of s*xual indiscipline in his four years
of service. His conduct was recently brought to the attention of the
army authority.
Delivering his judgement, the President of the Court Martial,
Brigadier General Raji, who is also the Commander of 52 Division
Signals, said the court opted for a lesser sentence of dismissing the
doctor because the convict was a young officer who got commissioned into
the Nigeria Army only in 2012.
He said in his sentence: “Given the level of treachery and the
betrayal of trust you displayed by having sexual relation with your
colleague’s wife, the court is tempted to award you a maximum sentence
of five years in prison. The Court has however looked that you were only
commissioned to the Nigerian Army in 2012, you may therefore not be
well grounded in the traditions of the Nigerian Army. Ignorance,
however, does not excuse your despicable behaviour. So therefore, the
court sentences you as follows:-
“On Count 1, dismissal with disgrace and dishonour. On Count 2, dismissal from the armed forces.
“Note that these sentences are subject to confirmation by the Army Council and the sentences are to run concurrently.”
According to revelations made during the court-martial, the
officer’s last s*xual escapade involved the wife of a fellow officer
whom he took advantage of when she visited his clinic for consultation
on a gynaecological case.
It was reported that after seeing the newly-married woman from Yobe
State, whose identity they asked should be protected, the doctor
insisted on conducting a more detailed examination of her.
Sources say the young doctor disregarded prescribed medical ethics
requiring that such examination be carried out in the presence of a
chaperon.
The officer’s wife served as one of the prosecution witnesses in
the case. In her testimony, according to details, the woman gave a
detailed account of how the doctor s*xually stimulated her before they
had s*x in the man’s office.
She told the court that the doctor later invited her in the evening
of the same day to his house so she could pick an ointment he earlier
prescribed for her treatment. There, they engaged in another round of
intercourse, she narrated.
The young woman said she reported to the barrack’s chaplain after becoming crushed by the weight of her guilt.
