George Oji
19 November 2008
Kaduna — Six soldiers, among them a Major, were yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment by a General Court Martial (GCM) sitting at the Officer's Mess, One Division, Kaduna, for illegally dealing in arms.
Two others, Corporals Kola David and Aliyu Mohammed, charged alongside the six, were demoted to the rank of private.
The six were charged and convicted by the GCM for selling military weapons of various descriptions stolen between January 2000 and December 2006, from Nigerian Army depots located at the Command and Staff College, Jaji, and the One Base Ordnance, Kaduna, to Rivers State-based Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), through one Sunny Owei Okah, younger brother to leader of MEND currently standing trial before a civil court in Jos, Plateau State, for alleged gun running.
The weapons illegally sold by the accused persons were estimated at N100 million.
The soldiers were tried under Sections 97 (1) (1), 215 and 971 of the Penal Code, as well as Sections 114 (1) of the Armed Forces Act Cap A20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. In addition, some of the charges were covered under Section 9(1) of the Firearms Act Cap 4 (28) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
While Suleiman Alabi Akubo was the Army Major among the convicted six, the remaining five were Sergeant Matthias Peters, Lance Corporal Alexander Davou, Lance Corporal Moses Nwaigwe, Lance Corporal Nnamdi Anene and Private Caleb Bawa.
Colonel Lanre Adekagun was Judge-Advocate in the trial.
President of the 10-man Court, Brigadier-General Bala Usara, read out details of the charges against the accused persons, immediately followed by judgment, since the trial had earlier taken place in camera.
In an emotion laden plea for mitigation of their sentences after conviction, Akubo urged the court to temper justice with mercy.
He said he was a lecturer at the University of Jos before he joined the then National Guard, explaining that he had always been an officer with good character, until he had problem with one Colonel Cecil Esekhaigbe, now a brigadier general and former registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.
Counsel to the accused, Obot, also pleaded with the GCM for a mitigation of the sentences.
In his sentence after the court resumed from a short break, president of the court said the convicted officer and soldiers must be sufficiently punished for the offences committed, to serve as deterrent to others.
"The GCM has listened to the allocutus made by the first convict, Major S.A Akubo and the defence counsel for the second to the eighth convict.
"The allocutus was indeed moving and the GCM deeply touched by the circumstances of the convicts. However, the GCM believes that it would be failing in its duty if the punishment that is commensurate with the gravity of the offences committed is not imposed on the convicts.
"The GCM has, therefore, decided to impose a sentence that is punitive enough and also serve as a deterrent to others," he said.
After pronouncing sentences varying from 5 to 10 years imprisonment for Count One to Four, he, however, pronounced life imprisonments for all the accused for Count Five.
Usara added that the sentences passed on the convicted officer and five soldiers would run concurrently but subject to the confirmation of the appropriate superior authority.President of the GCM had earlier overruled the defence counsel on the issue of jurisdiction, adding that he did so towards the tail end of the trial and during the closing of addresses, because the matter was raised late.
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