Lagos — Eight soldiers entrusted with the responsibility of safe-keeping the military arms at the Command and Staff College arms depot, Jaji and the One Base Army Ordnance, Kaduna were found guilty by a General Court Martial that sat in Kaduna to have stealthily sold those arms to River State-based Movement for the Defence of the Niger Delta (MEND) for use to wage war against the Nigerian State. George Oji writes

As an army major, if you add his salary and all his military entitles, at best his monthly take home pay squares up with that of an Assistant Director in the Federal Civil Service, which is in an way below N100,000.00 (One hundred thousand naira). But when the burble busted sometimes last year, the army authorities found a staggering N100, 000,000.00 (One hundred million naira) in Major Suleiman Alabi Akubo's bank accounts.

In the same vein, N800, 000.00 (eight hundred thousand naira) was also found in the accounts of Private Caleb Bawa and Lance Corporal Alexander Davou respectively. Various other inexplicable amount of money was also found in the accounts of other indicted army personnel. These huge amounts turned out to be proceeds from the sale of different brands of military arms pilfered from the army ordinance depots both in Kaduna and Jaji.

As the officer in charge of the One Base Ordnance, Kaduna, Akubo used his position to strike a deal with one Sunny Bowei Okah, younger brother of Emma Okah, leader of the militant group, Movement for the Defence of the Niger Delta (MEND). Emma is currently standing trial before a civil court in Jos, Plateau State for alleged gun running.

The deal between Owei and Akubo was basically about the later pilfering some arms at the ordinance and selling to the former at agreed sum. Being an officer, Akubo employed the services of some of his junior colleagues in the arms courier business. That was where the involvement of Sergeant Matthias Peters, Lance Corporal Alexander Davou, Lance Corporal Moses Nwaigwe, Lance Corporal Nnamdi Anene and Private Caleb Bawa came about. At the time the stealing was going on in Kaduna, it was also taking place simultaneously in Jaji because Akubo was also in charge of the smaller arms depots of the Nigerian Army located at the Command and Staff College. The "business," which commence in January 2000 went on and on till December 2006 when the lid was blown.

c weapons to MEND, with which the militant group continued to prosecute its wars against the Nigerian State. It was when these sources were blocked that Emma Okah, leader of the group resorted to procurement of weapons abroad. Unfortunately, it was during one of such foreign trips that he was nabbed.

Akubo before joining the military in the 90s was a lecturer at the University of Jos, where he thought IT-related courses. However, when former President Ibrahim Babangida mooted the idea of establishing a National Guard, Akubo was one of the many others that seized that opportunity to enlist in the military. But when the National Guard experiment was jettisoned by the subsequent military administration and having gone through all the military trainings, Akubo and the others involved were posted out to regular other military formations, that was how he found himself in the army.

How did the burble burst? The Court Martial account had it that following some routine transfers in the army, Akubo was moved out of the One Base Ordnance Kaduna and replaced by Lt. Col. H.T Wesley who became the Commanding Officer of the Unit. Meanwhile, there were also similar changes at Jaji, which saw the introduction of one Private Zamani Adamu and a few others. One of the nights Adamu was supposed to be on duty, he however had a compelling family matter that made him to seek permission to be late to work that night and the permission was granted.

However, when he resumed duty later that night, Adamu met the place in an unusual state and refused to be persuaded that the locks were broken into by the Officer in Charge (O-I-C) of arms shed in person of Sergeant Matthias Peter. On further investigation, he found out that the place was broken into by his duty partner who had removed 101 quantities of G3 Rifles.

To save his neck, Adamu promptly left Jaji the next day to make a report of the incident at One Base Ordnance depot, Kaduna. With this revelation, Wesley ordered the detention of Adamu and his duty partner, while he commenced full investigations on the report. Later revelations led to the involvement of personnel of the State Security Service (SSS) in the scam.

The Trial

Once the investigations were concluded, the Army High Command set up a General Court Martial (GCM) to try the accused persons. The Court, which had Brigadier General Bala Usara as President and Colonel Lanre Adekagun as Judge Advocate commenced sitting in February this year. Being a military Court Martial, press coverage of the trial was not allowed. The press only became involved when the Court concluded its trial and slated judgment for last week.

But from the initial remarks of Usara before reading out his judgment, all the accused persons were given the option of military representation. There was also the issue of jurisdiction, which was raised by counsel to the accused persons, which Usara remarked was over ruled by the Court because it was raised towards the tail end of the trial and during the closing of addresses when it had become very late to do so and therefore could not be sustained.

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.

Judgment and Sentencing

The Court found all the accused persons guilty in all the charges and subsequently sentenced six out of the eight of them to various terms of imprisonment, the sum of which added up to life imprisonment two of the accused persons whose level of involvement were very minor were how ever demoted to the next of their ranks.

The judgment is however subject to confirmation by the Army Council. Those that bagged life imprisonment were Major Suleiman Alabi Akubo, Sergeant Matthias Peters, Lance Corporal Alexander Davou, Lance Corporal Moses Nwaigwe, Lance Corporal Nnamdi Anene and Private Caleb Bawa. The two who were demoted were Kola David and Aliyu Mohammed.

In an emotion laden allocutus (plea for the mitigation of sentences) after conviction, Akubo urged the court to temper justice with mercy. The major told the court that 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 a problem with one Colonel Cecil Esekhaigbe, now a Brigadier General and a former registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna.

Counsel to the convicted soldiers, Lt. L. Obot also pleaded with the GCM for a mitigation of the sentence to the accused persons. But 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 a 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 8th 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."

In other related cases Lance Corporal Nnamdi Anene who had earlier bagged a life sentence was again charged alongside Private Emmanuel Atatai for stealing 25 AK 47 rifles and 11 rounds of ammunition valued at N220, 000 from 13th Brigade Armoury Calabar. They were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Colonel Rasheed Yusuf who was commanding officer of the One Base Ordnance Depot was to lose seniority for one year for failing to physically count the arms and ammunition under his control when he took over command of the ordnance base. Lt Colonel Henry Wesley was also charged for failing to physically count the arms and ammunition under his control when he took over command of the same unit. He is to lose of seniority for six months.

Major MK Ahmed who was also acting commanding officer of the same base during the arms pilfering saga was also charged for the same offence but was however not found guilty and subsequently discharged and acquitted. Similarly, Private Esinachi Ezinma and Corporal Solomon Ewa who were charged with the offence of selling arms and ammunition were found not guilty and also discharged and acquitted.

Colonel Ishaya Gajere, an intelligence officer with the Nigerian Army Intelligence Corps (NAIC) Abuja was charged for failure to perform military duties. He was asked to investigate Major Suleiman Akubo but rather than doing so was said to have written to the State Security Service to furnish him with the result of their own investigation and was said to have cleared Akubo of any wrong doing.

He was demoted by the GCM from the rank of a colonel to lieutenant colonel with four years seniority. Major Robert Cole was also charged for negligence and failure to perform military duties while serving in the Bakassi Peninsula. He is to lose one and two years seniority, respectively on the first and second count charges.