Court Martial Attorney – Mutiny: Court martial to give verdict April
Written by Dayo Johnson
Fate of the 28 Peace Keeping Soldiers standing trial for mutiny in Akure, would be decided on April 6, this year. President of the Court, Brig-Gen. Ishaya Bauka gave the date of the judgment yesterday after the submission of the Judge Advocate, Group Capt. M.E. Ahmed in Akure, Ondo State. Last year the soldiers had protested the non-payment of their allowances on return from the United Nations Peacekeepers in Liberia.
Four senior officers and a sergeant accused of stealing the accused persons allowances were last week convicted and sentenced by the same Court.
Sixteen witnesses were called during the trail by the prosecution counsel to prove its case and evidences including video recording of the protest from where he identified some of the soldiers were tendered.
According to the President, “the date was long due to the volume of work the panel needed to do
and some members of the panel would be involved in a joint operation exercise which would end in March.
Bauka asked the prosecution to make available records of service of the accused persons as their records would be read at the open court on April 6, the date of judgement.The prosecution Lt. Col. T.S. Nurseman had tendered some exhibits to prove its case while the defence led by Mr. Femi Falana, also called witnesses including the accused soldiers to prove their innocence.
One of the counsels to the accused persons, Mr. Morakinyo Ogele, had earlier made oral applications asking the court to compel the authorities to return phones of his clients.Ogele also prayed the court to direct the army authorities to pay his clients their balance of $800 each which is part of the allowances they were alleged to have protested for on July 4, 2008.
He prayed the court to compel the army authority to return the UN certificates of his clients back to them but the president of the court said that he was not aware that the UN issued certificates to soldiers who participated in peacekeeping operations but only medals.
Bauka also ruled that those in charge of the detention where the accused soldiers were kept should allow them to make administrative calls only but he said that they would not have access to phone while in detention.Falana had during the address asked the Court to acquit the soldiers since the prosecution has failed “woefully” to prove the charge of mutiny against the suspects.
He argued that the video recording which the prosecution team tendered as exhibit had been tampered with and could not be relied upon by the court.Falana also said that the same court martial should free the accused soldiers because it only last week gave the four officers who were responsible for stealing of the soldiers allowances light punishment for their grievous offence.
He said that although stealing attracted seven years imprisonment but some of the officers were demoted while some lost seniority. Based on this, he said that the court should discharge and acquit the soldiers.According to him, issues of unpaid peacekeeping allowances had become synonymous with Nigerian Army and it was high time the authorities did something to stop it.
According to him “although the ex-peacekeepers protested the illegal diversion of their allowances but he stated that they neither engaged violence nor engaged in an act capable of putting Nigerian army in imminent danger.He said that the “accused persons did not conspire with foreign forces to subvert the sovereignty of Nigeria . “Like treasonable felony, the offence of mutiny attracts life imprisonment. This confirms that mutiny is concerned with acts capable of subverting the sovereignty of a nation or undermining discipline in its armed forces.
“The spontaneous protest which was said to have occurred at the Owena Barracks, Akure Ondo State on July 5, 2008 cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be said to be a mutiny capable of subverting the sovereignty of Nigeria or undermining discipline in the armed forces. As the facts in this case do not justify the charge, we urge the court to dismiss the case and discharge and acquit the accused persons.”
The Human Right Activist told the court that the accused persons had constitutional right to protest as provided under Section 38 and 40 of 1999 Constitution. He argued further that although the 28 soldiers were soldiers but they could not be denied of this right as citizens of Nigeria.
But the Prosecuting witness T S Nurseman said that the evidence which was direct evidence was weighty and there was no way the accused persons could be freed.Nurseman had earlier in his address said that “the military law was of the belief that if only two army officers disagreed openly with their boss on any issue or even looked at him in face and called him by name, the set of officers were guilty of mutiny, which according to military law is a capital offence.
He said that the prosecution had proved the case of mutiny against the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt.
He said that the accused soldiers on July 4 disobeyed the Commanding Officer of the 323 Artillery went on a violent demonstration.He submitted that the court should not free the 28 soldiers based on technicalities of law because their conduct was opposed to military discipline and the nation at large.
Michael Waddington is a court martial lawyer – court martial attorney that defends military personnel worldwide as well as deployed civilian contractors subject to the UCMJ. He defends Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, Coast Guard, and civilian contractor court martial cases. He has successfully defended military personnel as a court martial lawyer Army Navy Marine & Air Force court martials in Germany, England, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.
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