27 November 2008
Are Nigerians to believe that only six soldiers of the Nigerian Army (a major and five lower ranks) executed the plot that resulted in the alleged illegal arms supply to militants?
Whatever we believe, a general court martial in Kaduna sentenced them to life imprisonment on November 18.
The six soldiers, Major Alabi Suleiman Akubo, Sergeant Matthias Peters, Corporals Alexander Davou, Moses Nwaigwe, and Nnamdi Anene and Private Caleb Bawa, were convicted for supplying 7,000 arms to the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta, MEND, through Sunny Owei Okah, said to be a brother of MEND leader, Henry Okah, who is currently on trial for alleged gun-running.
MEND has denied getting arms from the soldiers.
The offences were said to have been committed between January 2000 and December 2006 from the depots of the Nigerian Army located at the Command and Staff College, Jaji, and the One Base Ordnance in Kaduna . The cost of the lost arms is put at N100 million.
We have to assume the court martial was thorough. We are also under the impression that the military understands the implications of the trials better than us. However, our worries persist.
How was it possible for six soldiers to have moved that quantity of arms and ammunition out of the locations without any one noticing? How did they cover their tracks over six years of their operations? Even if they were removing only 1,000 guns yearly was that number too low to draw attention?
Where were their superior offices? Is it possible that only six people could have stolen these arms, loaded them into trucks and organise the security to fret them across 1003 kilometres ((Kaduna to Port Harcourt) or wherever was the entry point to the creeks)? How could they have access to this amount of arms illegally?
Is there a way of keeping a watch on the arms in our various military locations? Does the military take a regular audit of its arms and ammunition? At what intervals are these audits done? In the light of these discoveries are these audits adequate? Could there be arms and ammunitions missing from other locations that have not been unraveled?
Seven years ago, the former Auditor-General of the Federation, Chief Vincent Azie noted that arms were missing from some military and police stations. The authorities never took the audit report serious.
While the military authorities have done their bit with the court martial of the officer and men involved in the arms deal, it is important for the Federal Government to conduct an enquiry into this scandal. It is possible that what happened in Kaduna could have been replicated elsewhere. Would arms from points nearer to the creeks not have been easier preys?
The more questions asked, the more other questions pop up, all suggesting that more could be wrong than what warranted the court martial.
It is government's duty - for our collective good - to find out what happened to save itself further embarrassments.
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