The 27 Soldiers Must Be Released
Chinedu Bosah 9 September 2009
Lagos — The 7-year jail term given to the soldiers by the Army High Command is still unacceptable to members of the Education Right Campaign (ERC).
The Nigerian Army, through the Director of Amy Public Relations, Brig-General Chris Olukolade and Director of Legal Services, Army headquarters, Brig-General Abdukadir Abubakar, as reported in Vanguard newspaper of August 29, 2009, has tried to justify its action. Gen. Olukolade stated that the decision of the army authorities was informed by the army’s attempt to achieve justice and equity in the delivery of justice. What a way to insult the sensibility of the 27 soldiers, their families and the generality of Nigerians! Between fraud and protest, which should be punished? In this case, the army authorities have unjustifiably punished the 27 soldiers who complained of brazen theft of their entitlements while the officers who committed fraud merely earned a demotion in rank.
How do we explain a situation whereby 850 soldiers who participated in peace-keeping for 6 months in Liberia were not paid their allowances, which was supposed to be $1,228 per month and $7,368 for the period, for each soldier? The soldiers, after waiting in vain for 3 months, protested on July 4, 2008. They had been offered $3,000 each for the six-month period instead of $7,368. They were later tried and condemned to life imprisonment by the Brig-General Ishaya Bauka-led Court Martial in May this year. The 27 soldiers have since July 5, 2008 been incarcerated and, to make matter worse, they are kept in deplorable conditions.
To the army authorities, the officers only committed an error in the discharge of their duty while the soldiers committed mutiny. According to the army authorities, “What actually happened was that a team was dispatched to pay two groups of soldiers that returned from the mission area; one in Makurdi and the other in Akure. The soldiers in Makurdi had collected their savings while in the mission area but those of Akure were to receive their own on arrival back home. The team which started with the unit in Makurdi mistook them for the unit that was yet to collect their savings and therefore paid them what should have been paid to the unit in Akure”.
It is only in a country like Nigeria that that kind of story could be comfortably told, which, in a way, was to absolve those officers who were convicted for stealing and fraud by the same Court Martial.
Colonel Awotoye, who was the commander of the Makurdi-based 72 Battalion, received the allowances meant for the Akure unit despite being paid its own unit allowance and, for several months, kept quiet until the soldiers protested the fraudulent diversion and the army authorities called it an ‘error’! Can we be made to believe that the officers of the Army Finance (Major Abubakar Shonwa, the Deputy Director of Army Finance, Lt. Col. P.A Bala and Major C.A Njoku) who paid this money twice to the same unit also acted in error? If the whole money was paid twice to the same unit in error, where did they get the money with which they attempted to pay the soldiers ($3000 each) and why did the army authorities earlier offer the soldiers of the Akure unit $3000 instead of $7368? Even the Court Martial, while delivering the judgment on the officers, said: “The prosecution was able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that you collected the allowance that you were not entitled to, pocketed it and walked away thereby depriving the owners of the allowances. This is fraud and you are hereby found guilty of the charge of stealing.” It is clear there is more to this scandal than we know and if properly probed by elected independent panel, we would discover that more top-ranking officers beyond the 4 convicted officers were involved in this fraud.
The Education Rights Campaign calls for the immediate release of the 27 soldiers. We make this call because the decision of the army authorities is unjust, unfair and undemocratic. We call on the NLC, TUC and other pro-people organizations and individuals in this country to stand up against this brazen robbery and injustice.
Chinedu Bosah is the National Secretary of Education Rights Campaign (ERC)
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, San Diego, Norfolk, Jacksonville, Fort Bragg, Fort Jackson, Fort Stewart, Fort Gordon, Italy, Iraq, Kuwait, Korea, Okinawa, Japan, Yokota, and throughout the United States. military-defense-lawyer-recentcases.htm.
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