I wasn't sure where to post this but Ild like us to read it and pass our objective views By Femi Makinde, Akure Published: Tuesday, 28 Apr 2009
The Brig.-Gen. Ishaya Bauka-led court martial on Monday sentenced 27 former United Nations peacekeepers to life imprisonment for protesting the non-payment of their peacekeeping allowances.
Some of the soldiers sentenced to life imprisonment while arriving for judgment at the 323 Artillery Regiment, Akure, Ondo State , on Monday.
The convicts include three female members of the peace operation.
The court, however, discharged and acquitted one of the 28 accused soldiers, Lance Corporal Bala Aliyu, for want of evidence.
The female soldiers, Yetunde Olanihun, Mary Idoko and Esther Nkawor, and other convicted soldiers who have been in detention since July 2008, did not betray any emotion as the court handed them the maximum punishment for their offence.
The defence counsel, Mr. Femi Falana, who appeared briefly during the judgment, described it as a charade, saying the soldiers would appeal the judgment.
Falana had accused the president of the court martial of bias during the hearing.
He claimed that Bauka had said that no matter what, the soldiers would be punished for protesting. The human rights lawyer and the president of the court martial had an altercation during the hearing which led to Bauka walked away from the court.
In a judgment that was read for more than five hours, the president of the court martial said that the prosecution team, led by Lt.-Col. Sampson Nurseman, proved beyond reasonable doubt that the 27 soldiers, who served in the United Nations Mission in Liberia, were guilty of a one count charge of mutiny levelled against them.
The court held that the soldiers violated Section 12 subsection 2 of the Armed Forces Act of 2004.
It added that the punishment prescribed by the law was life imprisonment for the offenders, subject to the confirmation by the superior authorities.
The 27 soldiers jailed for life include Sergeant Oliver Akwara, Corporals Princewill Onwunari, Corporals Abass Saliu and Paul Maikudi.
Others are Lance Corporals Umar Abdukadir, Musa Salisu, Paschal Steven, Ibrahim Yusuf Loveday Nnadi, Yomi Ibukun, Bello Zaharadeen, Okani Pope, Wanogho Shadrack, Lawal Abubakar, Innocent Egbuna and John Felix.
The rest are Kabiru Mohammed, Chukwudi Onwukanjo, Samuel Ogbe, Jonathan Komo, Adaraloye Olalekan, Salisu Ibrahim, Anthogah Jonathan and Kelechi Anukan.
All the soldiers served under Lt. Col.-Godwin Umelo in NIBATT 15 at the United Nations Missions in Liberia.
Bauka held that the soldiers disobeyed the order of the commanding officer of the 323 Artillery Regiment, Akure, Ondo State, where they staged a public protest to press for the payment of their compulsory savings.
Bauka said, “A junior serving personnel is bound to obey the order of their superior once the order is legal. The refusal to obey the order fails to meet the military standard.”
The soldiers had during the trial said that they were arrested at random, adding that one of the officers collected a bribe of $150 from some of those arrested for the same offence.
They stated that the officer freed those who paid the bribe and refused to let go those of them who refused to cooperate with him.
But while the soldiers were jailed for life, the officers who were responsible for the mix-up which triggered the protest were given a very light punishment.
The Army paying team, led by Lt. Col. Paul Baba, who was the Deputy Director at the Army Finance Corps, Abuja, was said to have wrongly paid the allowance of the convicted soldiers to members of NIBATT 14, including the commanding officer who were drawn from the 72 Para-Battalion, Makurdi, Benue State .
Baba and other paying officers and the former Commanding Officer of 72 Para-Battallion, Col. A. Awotoye, were charged with cheating, stealing and negligence of duty before the same court martial. They were, however, punished by demotion, while the 27 soldiers were jailed for life.
Falana, while praying for freedom for the soldiers, told the court that the prosecution failed woefully to prove the offence of mutiny against the accused persons.
He said that although the ex-peacekeepers protested the illegal diversion of their allowances, none of them engaged in violence or any act capable of putting the Nigerian Army in imminent danger. The lawyer added that the accused persons did not conspire with foreign forces to subvert the sovereignty of Nigeria.
Falana also told the court that the accused persons had constitutional right to protest as provided under Section 38 and 40 of 1999 Constitution, arguing that as soldiers, they could not be denied of this right as citizens of Nigeria.
He said, “ The conduct of the accused persons cannot be classified as mutiny. By virtue of Section (52) (3) of the Armed Forces Act, a mere protest by soldiers is not a mutiny because ingredients of the offence of mutiny have been judicially defined in the case of CPL Segun Oladele and 22 Others versus Nigerian Army (2004)”
He said that Oladele’s case had to do with a similar protest by 23 soldiers over the illegal seizure of their estacode and lack of adequate medical treatment after serving Africa in ECOMOG Peace Keeping Force in Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The 23 soldiers were tried, convicted and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, including life imprisonment, but the Court of Appeal set aside their conviction and the sentences passed on them.
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