Counsel seeks mercy for NAF officer dismissed for raping teenager

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF), has dismissed one of its officers dismissed Flt.-Lt. Martins Owerem, for raping a 14-year old displaced girl.

Owerem’s dismissal came after a Nigerian Military Court Martial sitting in Maiduguri, on Tuesday found him guilty of the offence.

President of the Court, Maj.-Gen. Yakubu Auta, held that the court found Owerem guilty on two counts of rape and assault.

The convict was charged with defilement; assault and disobedient to standing order.

Auta held that the prosecution, through five witnesses and four exhibits, have proved their case beyond reasonable doubts.

He held that the court found the officer guilty on the first and second-count charge, while it discharge and acquitted him on the third-count charge.

The judge, therefore, ordered for his dismissal from service on the first count charge and sentenced him to demotion by one rank on the second-count charge.

Earlier, the Judge Advocate, Capt. Aminu Mairuwa, told the court that the convict on Sept. 29, 2018, while on patrol duty at Kawon Jiya community in the outskirts of Maiduguri, arrested some girls, who were collecting firewood, on the pretext that they crossed into the restricted area.

Mairuwa argued that the convict took one of the girls into the bush and raped her.

However, Defence Counsel, Mr Abbas Abba, sought for lenience in view of the selfless service and contributions of the convict in the counter insurgency campaign.