The Nigerian Army has released Private Hannah Sofiat Akinlabi, a female soldier who was detained after video of her being proposed to by a male corps member at the National Youth Service Corps orientation camp in Yikpata, Kwara State, went viral on social media.
The Nigerian Army’s spokesperson, Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, confirmed the news to PRNigeria.
“I can confirm to you that an order has been issued for the soldier to be released and spend Christmas with her family and friends, with a serious warning that she not repeat such an act again,” he said.
Captain MM Abdulahi, Kwara State NYSC Camp Commandant, had ordered the female soldier to be detained at a military detention facility in Ilorin, the state capital, pending further investigations.
She was detained for not being “due for marriage, romancing on uniform publicly, absent on parade, indiscriminate behavior, doing things other than her purpose in NYSC camp, disobedience to the standing order of social media rule, and disobedience to the ethics and tradition of the Nigerian Army,” according to a military source.
Civil society organizations and Nigerians, in general, condemned Akinlabi’s arrest and detention, calling it gender discrimination by the Nigerian Army.
