Work Place Sexual Harassment:  Security Officer Cries For Help In Imo 

By Chinenye Ukpabia

A Security Officer, Ms. Durueke Maudline C, from  Ubommiri in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State, who works with Imo State Civil Guards, has cried out for help as a result of workplace maltreatment meted out to her.

According to her, the Imo Civil Guards became a Parastatal under the new Ministry of Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, and she  was posted to the  Ministry since January 2022 as a Security Officer. There were four (4) of them from Civil Guards (two females and two males) posted to the Ministry at that time by the then Commander of the Civil Guards, Martins Ekeh. She has an Appointment Letter as an Officer in the Civil Guards since 2014. She and other Security Officers posted to the Ministry, also have Identification Cards issued by the Ministry of Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, Imo State.

She has been collecting her monthly allowance from the Ministry since her posting there, with increments for Security Officers who had performed well. The payments for Security Officers are prepared by the HOD Accounts, Mr. Christian Chukwuma Osuagwu, and handed out or transferred to the officers by him.

She said she had done her work well and that she rose by merit to become the Chief Security Officer (CSO) at the Ministry after the prior CSO left for another opportunity.

She said she had no issue with anybody until last year 2023, when  Mr. Christian Chukwuma Osuagwu, HOD Accounts, posed a problem to her.

One day, she was discussing with him in the Office, he (Osuagwu) started talking about intimate friendship, which she rejected.

From then,  Mr. Osuagwu’s disturbance of her for an intimate affair became unbearable. She told him that she promised herself that she won’t engage in workplace intimacy with the opposite sex so that she could have her dignity intact.

She still declined all his advances last year, only for her to come to work on January 17th this year  of 2024 and found out that the Governor had dissolved his Cabinet.

Mr. Osuagwu was the one who broke the news to her. He told her that the Commissioner, who reportedly protected employees from abuse and discrimination, was gone. According to her, the former Commissioner, Dr. Ugorji O. Ugorji, insisted that male and female staff in the Ministry must be treated equally and with respect, and made sure that female professionals had equal access to leadership positions in the ministry.

To her surprise, the morning after the dissolution of the cabinet, she came to work and greeted Mr. Osuagwu and he didn’t respond to the greeting.  Shortly afterwards, the Acting Permanent Secretary, Mr. Charles Onuegwunwoke, called her to his office and told her that Mr. Osuagwu asked him to sack her but that he told him that he (Osuagwu) won’t be the one to tell him who to sack. Onuegwunwoke was posted to the Ministry and resumed work as Acting Permanent Secretary after Governor Uzodimma’s dissolution of his cabinet on January 16, 2024.

The Acting Permanent Secretary later asked her if she had a file in the Office, and she said “no.” Onuegwunwoke then instructed the Admin Department to create a file for her. The news got to Mr. Osuagwu who went back to the Acting Permanent Secretary and  questioned him on why he wanted to retain her against his desires. Onuegwunwoke reportedly walked Osuagwu from his office and threatened aloud to the hearing of others that he would issue him a query for insubordination.

The Acting Perm Sec got suspicious and asked Durueke what Mr. Osuagwu had against her. She revealed to him that Mr. Osuagwu had made sexual advances at her, which she refused.

The Acting Permanent Secretary said, “that’s the reason” he is bent on sending her away but told her that it’s not by force that she must agree to his sexual advances.

After some days, the Acting Perm Sec, who assured her that he was on her side, started asking her for intimacy too, telling her that he wanted her to become his second wife.  She said she refused, reminding him that he is married and has grown up children.

The Acting Perm Sec insisted that he wants to take care of her; that she should stop coming to work from her village and now live in a house he built in Owerri; that she should take one room and be opening legs for him any time he wants.

In her surprise, she reminded him that it was the same thing Chris (Osuagwu) was coming to her for. But Onuegwunwoke shouted at her, cutting her short, warning her not to compare him to Chris (Osuagwu). She told him that she had every right to defend herself.

He told her the things Chris wanted to do to her and that he can protect her from Chris.

It was at that point that she contacted a family lawyer to help her.

The lawyer, Barrister J. L. Okoro,  wrote to the Head of Service on the 12th of February 2024 and copied the letter to Acting Perm Sec (Homeland Security) and Perm Sec, Ministry of Finance, which is Osuagwu’s parent Ministry.  There was no Commissioner to write to and no commissioners to copy to at the time. The lawyer chose to write directly to the Head of Service, instead of the Acting Permanent Secretary in her parent Ministry of Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, because the Acting Permanent Secretary (Onuegwunwoke) had himself become romantically interested in  his client.

For weeks, nothing was said or done by the Head of Service before her lawyer wrote a reminder, after which she invited her to “explain” her complaint.

On Tuesday, March 19, 2024, Durueke and her lawyer finally met with the Head of Service, Barrister Raymond Ucheoma. Two prior appointments for a  meeting with him failed to hold because the Head of Service could not make the meetings.

Durueke said that she did not know that Chris Osuagwu had gone to tell the  Head of Service that she is not a “Civil Servant” and her name is no longer on the Payroll of the State Government.  Mr. Osuagwu lied to the Head of Service that she is a  direct Staff  or Aide to the former Commissioner; and demanded that she should leave the Ministry after the Commissioner left.

Osuagwu was not the Acting Permanent Secretary or even an Admin Officer, but he  assumed the role of “Acting Commissioner” in the absence of the Commissioner, dictating who stayed and who left and blackmailing anyone who opposed him.

Meanwhile, Durueke has been ordered by the Acting Permanent Secretary, Onuegwunwoke, to stop coming to work at the Ministry.

Her lawyer, Barrister Okoro, believes that the Acting Permanent Secretary’s humiliating order, which he (Onuegwunwoke) told Durueke was at the directive of the Head of Service, was an act of retaliation and intimidation against his client for exercising her right to complain.

According to Barrister Okoro, at the meeting with the Head of Service on March 19th, the HOS denied giving such directive to Onuegwunwoke. Both Onuegwunwoke and Osuagwu had reportedly been using the name of the Head of Service for cover in their alleged  harassment and maltreatment of Durueke.

When this Reporter contacted Mr. Osuagwu to hear his own side of the story, he simply said: “Don’t call me again on this matter!” and cut the phone call.

Also when contacted, the  former Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs, Dr. Ugorji, who said he was in Abuja at a conference, declined to speak with this reporter until after he (Ugorji) speaks with the Head of Service.

The Head of Service and the Acting Permanent Secretary,  Onuegwunwoke, were contacted by this reporter for comments. As at the time of going to press, the HOS acknowledged the request for comments but had not offered any yet.

Onuegwunwoke responded with the following text message:

“Please remember my relationship with you in visible term. Whoever did that is blind in the name of God almighty. Thanks.” This reporter could not make sense of the message and an attempt made to get clarification from him did not yield any result.