A former Nigerian Army corporal, Matilda Anighoro, has alleged sexual harassment, torture, unlawful detention, and intimidation by senior officers, claiming she was forced out of service for refusing sexual advances.
Anighoro, a nurse with the Nigerian Army Medical Corps, said her ordeal began at the 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in Yaba, Lagos. In a petition to the Special Investigation Bureau, she accused a senior officer, General S.O. Okoigi, of persistently demanding a sexual relationship and punishing her after she refused.
“I was sexually harassed and ill-treated, that is why I resigned,” she said. “Before my resignation was approved after 10 months, I went through hell, because my Corps Commander, General Okoigi, tried to force me to accept to sleep with him.”
She alleged that after rejecting him multiple times, pressure escalated into a coordinated campaign involving other officers.
“General Okoigi requested to have a sexual relationship with me, which I turned down several times,” she said. “This made him use other officers to try to pressure me until it began to turn to punishment and a witch-hunt.”
According to her, she was threatened with punitive postings, including deployment to the North-East, and denied access to senior authorities when she sought intervention. Despite submitting her resignation in November 2023, she said the harassment intensified, including being ordered to Sokoto under unclear circumstances.
She described being humiliated during an encounter with the Corps Commander:
Anighoro recounted being summoned to the Corps Commander’s office, where she was allegedly humiliated and treated as a suspect rather than a soldier.
“On getting to the Corps Commander’s office, I was treated like an accused and a slave,” she said.
“I was locked in the guardroom, and multiple drug tests were conducted on me. My hair was loosened, and I was made to clear the grass behind the Corps Commander’s office.
“The Corps Commander was shouting at me to tell him who helped me write for the Corps Commander interview, that I was not brilliant enough to write this, and that the Captain who helped Private Ruth Ogunleye to write her letters had been caught.”
Anighoro further alleged that she was subjected to repeated punishments, denied basic freedoms, and eventually detained. She claimed her rank was stripped and she was held in harsh conditions.
“I was marched to the guardroom for 14 days… Inside… I was locked in a single man room and instructed not to be allowed out.”
She also alleged physical abuse and degrading treatment during detention.
Her most serious claim was that the harassment was explicitly tied to her refusal of sexual advances.
She said, “I was marched to the guardroom for 14 days’ imprisonment with hard labour, but I did 16 days instead, along with 14 days of extra duty. Inside the guardroom, I was locked in a single-man room and instructed not to be allowed out.
“I menstruated on myself inside the guardroom. For almost 10 days, I was not allowed to come out, until they needed to clean the newly renovated gynecology and maternity ward. I was marched every morning for five days to clean the ward.
“When taking me for labour work, General Okoigi on his convoy vehicle stopped and walked back to us in front of Napex, Opposite Admin block and told the RP Private Omeje to go call CO Admin in his office.
“Private Omeje left and General Okoigi told me that until I accept his sexual offer, he will continue to make me suffer. That he instructed my Commander and CO Admin to seize my rank, that he is going to make my life a living hell, except I accept to sleep with him.
“That immediately I accepted, he was going to return my rank back to me, because he instructed them not to forward it to Army Headquarters, and all the suffering and witch-hunt will stop.”
Alleged Physical Assault And Continued Harassment
Anighoro also accused other officers of physical abuse, including a Regimental Sergeant Major whom she alleged assaulted her during a punishment exercise.
“He pushed and threw me to the wall,” she said, adding that she was later kicked during labour work.
She stated that even after serving her detention and completing the extra duty, the harassment persisted; instead of relief, she was assigned to grueling shifts and subjected to what she described as deliberate, punitive treatment.
“I was placed on continuous morning shift,” she said, linking the decision to her refusal to comply with the alleged sexual demands.
Alleged Plot To Alter Military Records
Despite her voluntary discharge eventually being approved in September 2024, Anighoro alleged that efforts were made to officially downgrade her rank from Corporal to Private.
“When my voluntary discharge came out, they still refused to return my rank,” she said.
She alleged that a “bad brief” was sent to authorities in Abuja, instructing that her discharge documents be altered.
“Maj. Monday Motel started calling me from DPM Abuja that a second brief was just sent to him from my Corps Commander Gen Okoigi, which stated I was a bad soldier and instructed him to change my discharge certificate to Private soldier.
“That he has already done that, and he is waiting to deal with me when I come to Abuja for my documentation,” she alleged.
The threats, she said, forced her to abandon the documentation process entirely.
Denial Of Entitlements
Anighoro lamented that she has been unable to access her financial benefits since leaving the Army.
“Until now, I have not been paid my gratuity, packing allowance, three months’ combined pension start and monthly pension,” she said.
She also alleged procedural irregularities, including not being given records of proceedings before disciplinary actions were taken against her.
“I was not given a record of proceedings before the order,” she said, adding that official documents related to her alleged de-ranking contained no stated offence.
General Okoigi Denies Allegations, Accuses Anighoro Of Misconduct
When SaharaReporters contacted General Okoigi for comments on the allegations, he denied ever making sexual advances on Anighoro and accused her of misconduct.
General Okoigi, who claimed the first and only time he met Anighoro was during an interview in his office, however, confirmed that there were times he was aware that she was held in the guardroom over alleged misconduct.
“When I first got to know about this incident was when one of my officers, who was her commander at the 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital between 2023 and November 2025, sent me a video.
“I thought it was a previous video about an officer in 2 Division Ibadan,” he said in a telephone conversation with SaharaReporters.
“Funnily enough, if this lady passes me on the road, I won’t know her. The only time I saw this lady was when she was serving in the 68 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital, and the commander said that there was a soldier who was indiscipline and so on.”
He admitted that he was not Anighoro’s commander but her overall boss, and “I took interest in her case and that was the only time I came in contact with her.”
General Okoigi said that when he was informed that Anighoro applied to meet with him as the Corps Commander, and she was blocked from meeting with him, he ordered that she be allowed access to meet with him, as it is her right as a soldier.
“The day she came to my office, I asked the Director of Nursing to march her in along with the Regimental Sargent Major of the unit (RSM). That was the first time in my life I saw that soldier (Anighoro),” he said.
He said that Anighoro was on posting, but her commander informed him (General Okoigi) that Anighoro had a shop at Mammy Market where she sold wears, and that “on some occasions, they had to lock her up in the guardroom.”
General Okoigi said that Anighoro applied for retirement, and he forwarded her application to the army headquarters in Abuja.
“I said there was no point posting her out. Let’s leave her in the unit so that when her retirement was approved, she could leave, instead of taking her to Sokoto,” he said.
“But she was behaving somehow, and I asked her, ‘Are you on drugs?’ This was because she was acting somehow. I asked her to leave my office, and she left.”
When asked about specific instances of misbehavior exhibited by Anighoro, General Okoigi stated, “I will talk to my soldier, asking questions, she will not respond. She did not behave like a soldier, and that was why I was concerned.”
“She applied for an interview, came to my office looking for assistance and behaving like this. I just said they should test her for drugs,” he said.
“The interview ended, and I called her commander and said, ‘This your soldier is not normal, test her for drugs.’”
General Okoigi told SaharaReporters that when he saw a video Anighoro made against him, he wrote to the Provost Marshal of the Nigerian Army for “defamation of character” because he never knew her.
He also said that the matron Anighoro mentioned as one of the officers who harassed her was out of the country at the time.
He further claimed that all the officers Anighoro mentioned in her allegations were invited by the Military Police and that they all honoured the invitation except Anighoro.
“Based on that, the Military Police have been looking for her. We had to write to the Military Police, and because of this, her retirement is now put on hold,” he said.
He added, “When it was obvious that she was avoiding investigation because she didn’t have a case, the Military Police advised that I press charges against her in the court of law.”
According to him, Anighoro has a problem with him because “in the course of her problem with her commander in the hospital, I approved her to be demoted to Private”.
He alleged that Anighoro started misbehaving after he approved her retirement.
“She would be on duty, abandon patients in an emergency and go to the market where she was selling. She would leave the hospital,” he said.
“I said her commander should go ahead and do whatever he wanted to do. I was surprised that they didn’t even dismiss her. She is just being manipulative.”
Asked if Anighoro ever complained to him of harassment, abuses and assault from other senior officers, General Okoigi insisted that the first time he ever saw Anighoro was when she was in his office for a Corps Commander interview.
“She was in a guardroom at a point in time when they said that she abandoned her job, left patients in emergency to go and sell her wearing her shop.
“For me, what I have to do with the hospital is correspondence. They charged her, demoted her, and they sent the Part 2 Order to the headquarters. All this nonsense she is saying is very unfortunate,” he said.
However, Anighoro said she did not get any invite from the Military Police, saying, “I went on February 10 and wrote my statement on the February 11. Which date was the meeting supposed to hold?”
“I was only invited to come to Abuja to write my statement. And I told them I didn’t have transportation fee. So when I was able to get transportation, I went there,” she said.
Appeal For Intervention
Now outside the military, Matilda is appealing to the public and professional bodies for support in seeking justice and restoring her entitlements.
“Please help me, so I can be allowed to document as a corporal and receive my entitlement,” she pleaded.
Anighoro’s case highlights the urgent need for stronger safeguards, transparent complaint mechanisms and external oversight to ensure that allegations of abuse are properly investigated and addressed.
“I only wanted to serve and do my duty,” she said. “But my life was made a living hell.”