Renowned constitutional lawyer and
human rights activist, Chief Femi Falana(SAN) yesterday implored the Army Council to commute the death sentence passed on 12 soldiers by the General Court Martial to imprisonment instead of confirming it.
According to him, while the soldiers
were erroneously charged under
section 52(1) of the Armed Forces Act
Cap A20 because the General Officer
Commanding whose car was shot at was not killed, they were charged with
attempted murder which does not
attract the death penalty.
In its judgement on Monday, the
General Court Martial which tried the
group of 18 soldiers for act of mutiny in
Maiduguri, Borno State on May 14, 2014 discharged and acquitted five of the soldiers, jailed one for 28 days and
convicted the remaining 12 and
sentenced them death, after finding
them guilty of criminal conspiracy,
mutiny, attempt to commit murder,
insubordination to a particular order
and false accusation.
But in a statement he issued yesterday
evening, Falana noted that in the
interest of justice, the facts and
circumstance of the mutinous act of the
convicted soldiers should be taken into
consideration.
He also advised the 12 condemned
soldiers that should the decision in the
case is confirmed by the Army Council,
the convicted soldiers should take the
case to the Court of Appeal which is
likely to follow its decision in a similar
case.
“While mutiny cannot be condoned by
the armed forces because it strikes at
the foundation of discipline in the
military it ought to be pointed out that
the 18 soldiers were erroneously
charged under section 52(1) of the
Armed Forces Act Cap A20 Laws of the
Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Fortunately, the General Officer
Commanding whose car was shot at was not killed. Hence, the soldiers were
charged with attempted murder which
does not attract the death penalty”, he
noted.
Accordingly, the legal luminary pointed
out that the 12 convicts should have
been charged under section 52(2) of the
Armed Forces Act which provides for
life imprisonment, just like in the case
of the Akure 27 in which the convicted
soldiers were equally charged with
mutiny but convicted and sentenced to
life imprisonment.
He said, “Before the incident the
soldiers at the Maimalari cantonment
had complained of insufficient
ammunition, food and allowances. The
visit of the GOC was said to have
coincided with the arrival of the corpses
of soldiers killed in an ambush in
Chibok on the night of May 13, 2014. It
was the tragic situation which
reportedly infuriated the soldiers.
Having investigated and confirmed the
circumstances which led to the mutiny
in question the military authorities
removed the GOC.
“In the light of the foregoing, we urge
the Army Council not to confirm the
death sentence passed on the 12 soldiers but commute same to imprisonment in the interest of Justice. The facts and circumstance of the mutinous act of the convicted soldiers should be taken into consideration”.
Falana noted further that in the case of
Akure 27, the Army Council reduced the
sentence of life imprisonment to 7 years and later pardoned the convicts after taking into cognizance the fact that the allowances of the convicts who had served in Liberia were diverted by some military officers.
Advising the soldiers to appeal is their
sentence is not commuted, he said,
“However, if the death sentence of the
Maiduguri 12 is confirmed by the Army
Council the convicted soldiers are
advised to take the case to the Court of
Appeal which is likely to follow its
decision in the case of Yussuf & 21 Ors v Nigerian Army (2003) 36 WRN 68
wherein the sentence of life imprisonment passed on the appellants
who had rioted at the Cairo Airport in
Egypt was quashed.
“It was the finding of the Court that the
offense of mutiny complained of by the
respondent was instigated by the
officers who had diverted the medical
allowances which ought to have been
paid to the convicts while receiving
medical treatment in Egypt.” He further
advised.
