The jeremiad of 27 accused soldiers

These gallant soldiers, who had risked their lives, were told that their allowances of about $1,200 had been diverted. Their salaries were also not paid for six months and all efforts to use established channels of redress to get justice failed. Subsequently, they took to the streets and naturally refused orders by superior officers who […]

These gallant soldiers, who had risked their lives, were told that their allowances of about $1,200 had been diverted. Their salaries were also not paid for six months and all efforts to use established channels of redress to get justice failed. Subsequently, they took to the streets and naturally refused orders by superior officers who couldn’t get them their pay to disperse. This may not be natural in the army, it is usual in our society and in fact guaranteed by natural laws and the constitution of Nigeria.

And for asking for what belongs to them, they were picked up and charged before a seven-man court martial headed by General Bauka on trumped up charges of mutiny under the Army Act. The same Act under which they were charged had provision for charges, such as insubordination and refusal to obey the order of a superior officer, but the misanthropes who charged them deliberately chose mutiny.

The offence of mutiny requires a soldier to engage in acts which favours an enemy. An enemy in a military perspective would be an internal or external person or group acting against the interest of the state. It would stand to reason here, that there is no such enemy in this case and so, the charge could not stick. The Act empowers the chairman of the court martial to substitute the charge where he is certain that the interest of justice would not be served. But he chose to align with the prosecutor. If they had been properly charged they would have ended up with nothing more than two years behind bars if convicted. But the court martial acted in cahoots with the prosecutor to blight the future of these gallant soldiers.

Thus when the Chief of Army Staff ‘commuted’ the life sentence to seven years he was siding with a charge and sentence that is absurdly ludicrous and totally repugnant to the principles of natural justice, equity and fairness. For it is totally revolting that the tribunal, rather than try the officers who denied the soldiers their allowances as the aggressor to serve as a deterrent and redeem the image of the army he barely ordered their demotion to subordinate ranks! This sentence rankles at most!

This is one clear case where the aggressor is garlanded and the victim is sentenced. The COAS has failed in his duty as a senior officer who should look at issues with dispassionate eyes of justice. But there is still hope in the President of the Federal Republic who is Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces to prove to these soldiers and people who still respect the army as an institution and who may want to pursue a career in it that justice is the badge of the soldier’s honour and dignity. Mr. President must totally reject this confirmation, set the soldier’s free and restored to their posts and ensure that those who misapplied or misappropriated their funds are prosecuted. Mr. President must not endorse a kangaroo sentence just to please corrupt senior officers who daily lord it over their junior ones.

No part, aspect or section of the Nigerian society should have laws which make a mockery of the time-tested tenets of justice, equity and fairness. This case must not be allowed to go before the Court of Appeal before alternate justice is applied. Now that the COAS has failed to see justice, Mr. President must override this decision, even if he does it as a once and for all precedent. Then, the National Assembly must, as a matter of urgency review the Army Act. It is urgently in need of overhaul. This case shows the level of injustice perpetrated by court martial leading perhaps to loss of lives and privileges; it is a clarion call for a revisit of such sentences and restoration of justice. There is a serious need for a truth and reconciliation commission for past court martial and other summary trials. The assembly must expunge those sections of the Act which mocks the notion of justice and make people think that the army is filled with zombies with no capacity for rational thinking.