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