12 soldiers to die by firing squad for ‘mutiny’
Twelve Nigerian soldiers were in the early hours of Tuesday sentenced to death for mutiny by a military tribunal sitting at Mogadishu Cantonment in Abuja.
In all, 18 soldiers were tried by the tribunal, five of whom were discharged and acquitted.
One soldier, Pte Ichocho Jeremiah, was found guilty of going “absent without leave” (AWOL), for which he got 28 days imprisonment with hard labour.
He was also found guilty of “conduct to the prejudice of service discipline”, for which he was reprimanded.
The Brigadier-General Chukwuemeka Okonkwo-led tribunal sentenced the remaining 12 soldiers to death by firing squad, after they were found guilty of criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny. They were also found guilty of committing mutiny.
Cross section of the court-martialled soldiers
The 12 soldiers are Cpl Jasper Braidolor, Cpl David Musa, LCpl Friday Onun, LCpl Yusuf Shuaibu, LCpl Igomu Emmanuel, Pte Andrew Ngbede, Pte Nurudeen Ahmed, Pte Ifeanyi Alukhagbe, Pte Alao Samuel, Pte Amadi Chukwudi, Pte Allan Linus, and LCpl Stephen Clement.
The five acquitted soldiers – Cpl David Luhbut, Cpl Muhammed Sani, Pte Iseh Ubong, Pte Sabastine Gwaba and Pte Inama Samuel – were discharged on all five counts of insubordinate behaviour, false accusation, mutiny, AWOL and conduct to the prejudice of service discipline.
On May 14, 2014 some soldiers at Maimalari barracks in Borno state shot at the general officer commanding of the 7th division of the Nigeria army, Maj-Gen Ahmed Mohammed, in protest against the death of their colleagues, which they blamed on senior officers.
Describing the incident, Okonkwo said the mutineers “shot sporadically in the air, calling senior officers cowards”.
He also said that the protesting soldiers falsely accused their commanding officers of deliberately putting them in harm’s way for sinister reasons.
Its rather unfortunate bt d soldiers shd av knwn dat mutiny is a punishable offence in d arm forces dat leads to dead. Am sowie for them. TO SERVE OUR FATHER’S LAND WITH LOVE AND STRENGTH AND FAITH.
its quite unfortunate for these gallant soldiers but they went overboard by shooting at their superiors…an offence punishable by death…wellthey are soldiers so they’ve gotta dance to the music they played
This development is really better done without an ear hearing it, sad to hear, I could say every thing about the systems are confused, well, if the military could court martial 12 to death owning to the facts that the events of the coordination of Boko Haram prelude their angers, then let reconsider the indicted linked persons to this evil Boko Haram.
Were they lying? The Senior officers should search their consciences…from visible indication and facts available, Were the junior officers lying?
It is an offence in the military cirlce to munity, but their protest was genuine. The people of borno state has said it time without number that our army is not equipt. Its rather unfortunate, they told told the truth and they are being killed for daring to tell the truth. Its was an honest mistake.
The system of Boko Haram and insideKenya: death squads have the same policy and system of eliminating Muslims as US and Israel planed to Kenya’s srcurity personnel.