Military fires GOC attacked by convicted soldiers

Director of Defence Information, Maj.-Gen Chris Olukolade.|  

Military authorities have retired the former General Officer Commanding the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, Maj. Gen. Abubakar Mohammed.

Investigations by us   revealed this on Tuesday just as the Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress and   human rights lawyers pleaded for the pardon of 12 soldiers who were sentenced to death by a military court on Monday.

The soldiers, who had on May 14, 2014 fired shots at Mohammed, in Maiduguri, were convicted for mutiny and other offences such as insubordination .

Investigations revealed that Mohammed was retired after he was recalled to the Headquarters of the Nigerian Army without posting for months after the soldiers’ attempt on his life.

It was gathered from a top military source in Abuja that the Army authorities quietly retired him last month.

The source said, “The Maj. Gen. has been retired; you don’t expect that to be made public; issues of retirement especially in the military are confidential. The man was at the Army headquarters for some time. He was awaiting posting then   but he was eventually retired about a month ago.”

Meanwhile, the NLC, TUC   and human rights lawyers have urged the Presidency and the Army Council chaired by the Minister of Defence to prevail on the military authorities to spare the lives of the 12 soldiers.

The lawyers are   three Senior Advocates of Nigeria–Olisa Agbakoba,     Femi Falana and   Sebastian Hon – as well as Fred Agbaje and Monday Ubani.

In fact, Agbakoba, who flayed the judgment threatened to go to court to seek justice for the convicts.

He said that the process through which the court martial passed the sentences on the soldiers   was unconstitutional.

The SAN, who maintained that the composition of the court   violated the principle of natural justice, said     he had asked his lawyers to approach the convicts for the purpose of lodging an appeal against the military authorities.

He said, “The court martial system is totally unconstitutional. They (soldiers) have the right to go to court and appeal the judgment. Actually, I have asked my lawyers to approach them and afford them our services to lodge an appeal.”

Agbakoba submitted that the offence for which the soldiers were tried and found guilty was undefined. He stated   that Section 38(12) of the 1999 Constitution stipulated that all offences must be defined.

He said,“I have represented a number of soldiers at court martial. In particular, I represented Gen. JOJ Okulagu and my point at the   court martial was that a process that allows the commander to appoint the investigator, the court martial president, members and the judge advocate is clearly contrary to all principles of natural justice.

“The basis of justice is that everybody who has the power to decide has a duty to act fairly. Without prejudice to the offence, whether the person is guilty or not, he is entitled to a fair trial.

“The Army Act that defines the work for the court martial system is unconstitutional because the basic offence contained in the Army Act is that you are charged for an offence said to be prejudicial to service discipline.

“That is what the law says–conduct prejudicial to service discipline. But conduct prejudicial to service discipline is an undefined offence contrary to Section 38(12) of the Constitution and the court has said that offences must be defined.”

Falana and Hon, who acknowledged the severity of the offences the soldiers were accused of, said pardoning them was necessary in view of the circumstances informing their action.

Falana said the soldiers were erroneously charged under S ection 52(1) of the Armed Forces Act Cap A 20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 as Mohammed whose car was shot at by the soldiers was not killed.

“The soldiers were charged with attempted murder which does not attract death penalty. In the circumstance, the 12 convicts should have been charged under Section 52(2) of the Armed Forces Act which provides for life imprisonment,” he said.

The human rights lawyer called on the Army Council not to confirm the verdict but to commute it to imprisonment.

Falana said, “Before the incident, the soldiers at the Maimalari Cantonment had complained of insufficient ammunition, food and allowances. The visit of the GOC was said to have coincided with the arrival of the corpses of soldiers killed in an ambush in Chibok, Borno State on the night of May 13, 2014.

“It was the tragic situation which reportedly infuriated the soldiers. Having investigated and confirmed the circumstances which led to the mutiny in question, the military authorities removed the GOC.

“In the light of the foregoing, I urge the Army Council not to confirm the death sentences passed on the 12 soldiers but commute same to imprisonment in the interest of Justice. The facts and circumstance of the mutinous act of the convicted soldiers should be taken into consideration.

“However, if the death sentence of the Maiduguri 12 is confirmed by the Army Council, the convicted soldiers are advised to take the case to the Court of Appeal which is likely to follow its decision in the case of Yussuf & 21 Ors v Nigerian Army (2003) 36 WRN 68 wherein the sentence of life imprisonment passed on the appellants who had rioted at the Cairo Airport in Egypt was quashed.”

On his part, Hon said despite the charges, Jonathan   should exercise his   power under section 175 of the 1999 Constitution to grant prerogative of mercy to them.

He said, “Mutiny is a serious crime in the military in the world over. If it is tolerated, it will lead to serious chaos and breakdown of law. In fact, it will even lead to the overthrow of the central government.

“I say this with every sense of responsibility, taking into account the security condition in the country and the very obvious fact that soldiers are daily crying that they have not been well kitted to fight the Boko Haram insurgents.