• Court martial also demotes commander
A serving Lieutenant-Colonel in the Nigerian Army has
become the first casualty in the fight against Boko Haram.
The court martial set up by the Army to try some officers for
offences committed while on internal security operations in
the North-East has sentenced him to one year in prison.
Similarly, another officer who served as a commander of one
of the battalions in the Boko Haram’s hotbed had been
demoted in rank.
The jailed Lt-Col has concluded arrangements to appeal.
The court martial which sat in Kaduna, has since concluded
its sitting when it tried officers in the 1 Division of
responsibility.
Meanwhile, it is also set to sit in 3Division, Jos to try an
undisclosed number of officers for offences committed in the
fight against insurgency. This is coming just as the court
martial will soon try 18 soldiers for mutiny at the 7 Division
of the Army in Maiduguri, Borno State. The court marshal
resumes today.
The court was forced to go on one week recess to allow
lawyers appearing to attend this year’s conference of the
Nigerian Bar Association(NBA) in Owerri, the Imo State
capital.
In an attempt to stop what it described as the “high rate of
indiscipline”, by soldiers and lukewarm attitude by some
officers in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency, the
Nigerian army had in June, constituted a General Court
Martial(GCM), to try erring personnel for offences committed
in battle. .
The offences, committed mostly by Army personnel on
operation in the North- East, ranged from abandoning of
military equipment and indiscipline.
However, Daily Sun gathered that while some of the officers
facing the court martial had genuine cases, others did not.
Some of the suspects who had genuine cases could not
convince the court because their lawyers are mostly civilian.
Sources say getting a military lawyer who has the necessary
knowlegde about miltary laws, remains the best option for
officers to defend them during court martial.
Top Army sources said the rate of indiscipline was becoming
worrisome to the authorities as they are daily bombarded
with phone calls from highly placed individuals on
happenings and demands by soldiers.
The source, who does not want to be mentioned, attributed
the decay in the Army to the recruitment process where
applicants who cannot get good jobs see the military as the
last resort.
A total of 18 soldiers were arrested as being the masterminds
of the crisis that rocked the 7 Division of the Army in
Maiduguri on May 14, 2014.
The soldiers, upon their arrest, disarmed after the
investigating team set up by the Army Headquarters found
them culpable of the offence. They were flown to Abuja and
kept in the guardroom in one of the barracks. Similarly, the
officers found guilty, were also arrested from their locations
and flown to Abuja and locked in the Officers Mess from
where they were transported to Kaduna to face the GCM.
http://sunnewsonline.com/new/?p=79670

Thought death was the price for mutiny and incompetence, y'all this imprisonment talk?

Death penalty

.

Which mutiny? But DHQ denied there was nothing like that na. We are finished in this country oo! The federal govt tell lies more than the devil.

size38: Which mutiny? But DHQ denied there was nothing like that na. We are finished in this country oo! The federal govt tell lies more than the devil.

Nobody believed them bro

ok next

hmmm I just pity all this young military officers