Military fires GOC attacked by convicted soldiers

 

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.