Mutiny: Falana Urges Military To Commute Death Sentence To Imprisonment.

Human Rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN) has urged the military authorities not to confirm the death sentence passed on the 12 soldiers for mutiny and other offences, rather to commute the death sentence passed on the soldiers to imprisonment in the interest of Justice.

The 12 soldiers are among 18 soldiers arraigned for mutiny for firing shots at the General Officer Commanding of 7th division of Nigerian Army, Major General Ahmed Mohammed on May 14, 2014 in Maiduguri.

 The convicts were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, mutiny, attempt to commit murder, insubordination to a particular order and false accusation.

The General Court Martial which tried the group of 18 soldiers for mutinous acts had passed death sentence on 12 of them, jailed one for 28 days with hard labour and discharged and acquitted five of the charges preferred against them.

However, if the death sentence of the Maiduguri 12 is confirmed by the Army Council,  Falana advised the convicted soldiers  to take the case to the Court of Appeal.

Falana remarked that the Court of Appeal is likely to follow its decision in the case of Yussuf and 21 others  versus Nigerian Army (2003) 36 WRN 68 “wherein the sentence of life imprisonment passed on the appellants who had  rioted at the Cairo Airport in Egypt was quashed.

“It was the finding of the Court that the offense of mutiny complained of by the respondent was instigated by the  officers who had diverted the medical allowances which ought to have been paid to the convicts while receiving medical treatment in Egypt”, he stated.

He further  argued that the facts and circumstance of the mutinous act of the convicted soldiers should be taken into consideration.

Before the incident the soldiers at the Maimalari cantonment had complained of insufficient ammunition, food and allowances.

The visit of the GOC was said to have coincided with the arrival of the corpses of soldiers killed in an ambush in Chibok on the night of May 13, 2014.

It was the tragic situation which reportedly infuriated the soldiers.

Having investigated and confirmed the circumstances which led to the mutiny in question the military authorities removed the GOC.

Falana pointed out that while mutiny cannot be condoned by the armed forces because it strikes at the foundation of discipline in the military, he emphasised that  the 18 soldiers were erroneously charged under section 52(1) of the Armed Forces Act Cap A20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

In the circumstance, the 12 convicts should have been charged under section 52(2) of the Armed Forces Act which provides for life imprisonment.

He noted that the General Officer Commanding whose car was shot at was not killed.

He said this explained why the soldiers were charged with attempted murder which does not attract the death penalty.

The lawyer recalled that in  the case of the Akure 27, the convicted soldiers were equally charged with mutiny but convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

He said the Army Council reduced the sentence of life imprisonment to seven  years and later pardoned the convicts.

He recalled that the fact that the allowances of the convicts who had served in Liberia were diverted by some military officers was taken into cognizance by the Army Council and informed the mitigation of their sentence.

Source: The Nation