Army major jailed for life over arms sale to Niger Delta militants granted clemency

Suleiman Alabi Akubo, a major in the Nigerian Army who was sentenced to life imprisonment for selling more than 7,000 stolen military weapons to Niger Delta militants, has been granted clemency by President Bola Tinubu.

Akubo, 62, was among the 175 persons who recently received a presidential pardon and other forms of clemency following the approval of the national council of state.

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, said in a statement on Saturday that Tinubu commuted Akubo’s life sentence to 20 years’ imprisonment “following good conduct and remorsefulness”.

In 2007, Akubo and other senior soldiers were accused of selling military weapons at the depots of the Nigerian Army located at the Command and Staff College, Jaji, and the One Base Ordnance, Kaduna.

The military weapons were said to have been sold to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a militant group.

The weapons included assault rifles, submachine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

In November 2008, a military court in Kaduna sentenced Akubo and five other soldiers to life imprisonment for selling military weapons that were stolen between January 2000 and December 2006 to militants.

Bala Usara, the military judge, had said that the buyers of the stolen weapons include Sunny Okah, brother of Henry Okah, the leader of MEND.

The stolen weapons were valued at N100 million at the time of the theft.

In July 2016, MEND said the federal government has agreed to review Akubo’s and five others’ life sentences under the presidential amnesty programme (PAP).