BEVERLY HILLS, September 16, (THEWILL) – For firing shots at the General Officer Commanding of the newly created 7 Division of Nigerian Army, Maj. Gen. Ahmed Mohammed, in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on May 14 and some other offences, 12 soldiers are to die.
They are Jasper Braidolor, David Musa, Friday Onuh, Yusuf Shuaibu, Igonmu Emmanuel, Andrew Ugbede, Nurudeen Ahmed, Ifeanyi Alukagba, Alao Samuel, Amadi Chukwuma, Alan Linus, and Stephen Clement.
They were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, mutiny, attempt to commit murder (shooting of the vehicle of the GOC); insubordination to a particular order; insubordination and false accusation.The condemned soldiers are part of the 18 standing trial before a military court in Abuja over their role in the mutiny.
On Monday, the military court found 13 out of the 18 soldiers guilty and 12 of them were subsequently sentenced to death. Five others were discharged and acquitted while the remaining one was jailed for 28 days with hard labour.
Those discharged are David Robert, Mohammed Sani, Iseh Ubong, Sebastine Gwaba and Naaman Samuel.
Jeremiah Echocho was sentenced to 28 days with hard labour.
Passing the judgement on Monday, the President of the Court Martial, Maj. Gen. C.C. Okonkwo, said the 12 soldiers were found guilty of three of the most heinous charges bars.
The defence counsel the convicts had pleaded with the court martial to temper justice with mercy as the legal team reeled out pathetic stories about the family backgrounds of the convicted soldiers with one said to be the only son of his octogenarian widowed mother and another being the father of a five-month-old baby.
The defence counsel argued that giving them maximum sentence would do more harm than good,saying it would increase the agony of their dependants.
On May 14, the convicted soldiers allegedly attacked the GOC and his men when they visited the Maimalari Cantonment, the headquarters of the newly-created 7 Division of the Nigerian Army.
Accordingto military sources, soldiers at the cantonment had been complaining of insufficient ammunition, food and allowances prior to the GOC’s visit as they were said to be unhappy, with their morale at its lowest ebb because there had not been troop rotation for a long time since their deployment to combat Boko Haram insurgents in the North- East.
According to a military source, “The GOC’s visit coincided with the arrival of the corpses of soldiers killed in an ambush in Chibok on the night of May 13, 2014.
“The apparently agitated soldiers, on sighting the corpses of their slain colleagues became hysteric. Some opened fire on the GOC, who was lucky to have escaped unhurt. However, the bullets hit and seriously injured some of his bodyguards, who also fled to safety.”
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