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

Investigations by The 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.

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.

“In spite of that, however, the way the young men took the law into their hands by shooting at the car of their commander should not be tolerated under any circumstance.

“Having said that, I will still say that the President should exercise his prerogative of mercy under section 175 of the constitution to pardon them with a strong warning that he will not pardon any other person who does that. I say that because the morale of the military personnel on the ground should not be dampened.”

Agbaje said if the soldiers were not pardoned, the judgment could dampen the morale of others currently fighting insurgents in the country.

Agbaje also explained that the Armed Forces Decree did not stop the convicts from appealing against the judgment at the Court of Appeal.

He said, “They can go to the Court of Appeal where the judgment of the court martial will be subjected to judicial scrutiny and review. Nothing in the Armed Forces Decree can override the clear provisions of the 1999 Constitution particularly sections 6 and 36, dealing with judicial powers and fair hearing.

“It is not too late in the day if the issue of prerogative of mercy is also considered by the President now that the court martial is now functus officio.

“The president should come in to exercise his prerogative of mercy. If the president does not intervene through clemency it will dampen the morale of other soldiers in the battle field,” he added.

Ubani, who expressed concern on whether the soldiers had been given fair hearing as proceedings of martial courts were “conducted in secrecy,” insisted that the soldiers had a right of appeal.

He said, “The soldiers still have the right of appeal. Even if the Court of Appeal goes ahead to agree with the tribunal, I am still of the opinion that the approving authority must look at this case once again. Under what circumstance was this mutiny committed.

“These people had alleged that they were not properly equipped. They had alleged that they were not properly taken care of.”

Also, the NLC, through its General Secretary, Dr. Peter Ozo-Esan, said it could only appeal for clemency since the military had its own judicial process.

It said, “You know the military all over the world has its judicial process. We believe that the sentences are still awaiting the approval of the Army Council. It is when that process is completed that the full details and the circumstances would be taken into consideration. Where it is possible, some degree of clemency should be shown.We therefore appeal for some degree of clemency by the Army Council.”

Read the rest story here:

http://www.punchng.com/news/military-fires-goc-attacked-by-convicted-soldiers/

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

inteli: Good riddance to bad rubbish!

GBAM..

They should sentence that GOC as well

Should i say yes ,or should i say no ?either is dangerous.This should be pending.

Dey should appeal nd dig deep to wat rilly cause d MUTINY

And the young men will still go to the gallows? The judgement should be revisited, nay, changed to a lighter punishment.

They should be pardoned, this is not the time for unnecessary distraction.

They are not serious.

Feedmemore: They should be pardoned, this is not the time for unnecessary distraction.

So says a woman!!!

hopefully they'll survive this one

They should be summarily pardoned and subsuqiuently retired with their benefits paid. Keeping them in the army might seem to underrate the senior army authority. The presidency should also look deep into curbing corruption in the army, as all these confusion can also be traced to corruption in the army cadre. Corruption breeds mistrust, especially in a discipling setup like the army.

Good development!

The guy was retired. That's a soft landing. He gets all his benefits etc.

I would have expected the equivalent of dishonourable discharge

I was expecting the GOC to be court martialed too.
I doubt if the soldiers would be executed though. They will appeal the judgement and I hope it would be commuted to prison term.

I remember when some months back, some people here on nairaland were hailing the actions of these young soldiers without thinking of the consequences they would have to face. Now it has turned to a begging level and everybody is quiet. Before taking any action, be prepared for the consequences.
My own is the GOC should be tried for treason at least .

firing dis man is just a way of helpin him escape justice,he should be tried nd prosecuted for God sake

.dis man shud b tried and if found guilty prosecuted too

nd u jst make my day with this info

It's a welcomed development

Good move.

Hmm.. Think before you act.

But our young military guys get too much morale o. You need to visit some barracks to see what they do when they find their way outside the community.

I see a lot of them showing their prowess over the Policemen calling the 'bloody civilians'.

They need caution abeg.

Not only retirement, he should be investigated n prosecuted.

These men should be pardon

None of my business.

space officially sold to bigwind.,
**bidders keep bidding**


These activists are
only adding fuel to the
fire by challenging the
judgement of the
military court. All over
the world,the military
court is diff frm the
customary courts. The
boys should have
thought about the
consequences of the
action. I jus pray they
reduce the
purnishment. But they
must be discipline.

ok