The Senate Committee on Navy has asked the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral Isaiah Ibrahim, to explain the reasons why armed naval ratings attached to Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade assaulted a lady, Miss Uzoma Okere, in Lagos on Monday.

Uzoma, who has been identified as a daughter of the Sergeant-At-Arms of the National Assembly, Col. Emmanuel Okere (rtd), was beaten and stripped naked by six naval ratings on Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, for allegedly failing to quickly give way to Arogundade‘s convoy.

Since THE PUNCH exclusively reported the incident on Tuesday, the newspaper has been inundated with reactions from its readers both at home and in the diaspora who felt that the lady‘s fundamental rights were unjustly violated.

Since the report, however, our correspondents and columnists have been receiving threat telephone calls from unidentified persons.

The bestial act by the naval ratings, which is already on a Cable News Network’s website, http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC 134234, further strengthened the global perception of Nigeria as a country where human rights are frequently abused, especially by military personnel.

An anonymous witness recorded and sent the brutalisation of the lady to ireport, a user-generated site operated by the international news agency.

A copy of the video, recording secretly surreptitiously recorded by a passer-by was also sent to THE PUNCH on Thursday. The 20-minute brutalisation of the lady apparently rubbishes the naval officers’ claim that they were provoked.

The Senate committee‘s reaction was sequel to the petition by the victim‘s father, urging it to look into the matter with the view to bringing his daughter‘s attackers to justice.

In a petition presented to both the Senate Committees on Navy and Defence on Wednesday, Okere described the attack as unlawful and condemnable.

He said Uzoma, who is still receiving treatment in a Lagos hospital, would want the Senate to intervene.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Navy, Senator Bode Olajumoke, confirmed on Thursday in a telephone interview that the committee had received the petition from the Sergeant-At-Arms.

He said the Chief of Naval Staff had been officially asked to respond to the allegations.

Olajumoke said, ”We have already swung into action on the matter. We have written the CNS to respond to the petition on the brutality of the daughter of the Sergeant-At-Arms.

“We need to hear from the other side, the CNS will have to explain the reason for the action before we know what to do.”

THE PUNCH also gathered on Thursday that the Nigerian Navy had ordered an investigation into the incident.

The Director of Information of the Navy, Commodore David Naibada, and the Director of Policy, Captain Henry Babalola, confirmed the development to one of our correspondents in Abuja.

They assured Nigerians that anyone found to be directly or remotely connected with the incident would be sanctioned if found guilty.

They said they were sensitive to how the public perceived the Navy and that they could not be seen to be building bridges of understanding with civilians and at the same time, be condoning acts that went against this belief.

It will be recalled that Naibada had, in his earlier reaction to the incident, attributed the assault to ‘provocation’ from the victim.

Meanwhile, Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and some notable non-governmental organisations have called for the sanctioning of Arogundade and the naval ratings for the brutalisation of Uzoma.

Among the groups that have expressed interest in the case are the Project Alert, Women Arise, Real Woman Foundation and the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights.

Soyinka, at a news conference in Lagos said, “I want to add my voice to the uproar that has been generated by that admiral in the brutalisation of this woman. If that admiral is not prosecuted, civil organisations will institute actions against him.

“This abominable kind of conduct has got to stop. This animal conduct on the part of our uniformed services must end.”

“The civil society group said that the assault and humiliation of the lady was one act of aggression that must not be allowed to go unchallenged.

This, they added, was not only in seeking redress for the victim but in ensuring that other women do not suffer similar fate in the hands of ”overzealous men who play up their weakness as a sign of strength.”

Pastor Nike Adeyemi of RWF and Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin of WA would address a joint press conference on the issue at the weekend.

The CDHR, in a statement by its President, Olasupo Ojomo, described the assault as unjust, inhuman and degrading.

It said the attack was also a ”direct violation of the fundamental rights of the victim to life (which was threatened); dignity of her person (she was brutalised and tortured); fair hearing (punishment without trial or conviction by a court established by law); freedom of movement (her free movement on the road was disrupted) which are all rights guaranteed her in chapter IV of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights, the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights and all other continental and international treaties to which Nigeria is a signatory.”

The group said because such injustice must not be allowed to go unaddressed, it was prepared to use all lawful means including litigation to secure appropriate redress and remedy for the victim unless some demands were met.

The demands include, ”That the Federal Government take full responsibility for the treatment and restoration of the good health of Uzoma.

”That the Federal Government pays such amount of compensation as may be expressed by Uzoma as redress for the violations of her human rights by Arogundade and his men who are officers and men of the Nigerian Navy.

“That Arogundade and his men, who are ratings in naval uniform, be relieved of their posts via dismissal from service for engaging in conduct that show that they are not fit and proper persons to be retained as officers and men of the Nigerian Navy.

”Prosecution of Arogundade and the ratings for engaging in conducts capable of breaching public peace and for assault occasioning grievous bodily harm to Uzoma.”

The CDHR advised that since Nigeria was not in a state of war, all military and quasi-military personnel should be restrained from using siren on the roads henceforth.