97 More Nigerian Soldiers To Be Tried For Mutiny

It seems the Nigerian Army authorities is bent on clearing any dissenting soldiers from their rank and file as another General Court Martial has been set up to try 97 other soldiers including some high ranking officers for offenses ranging from mutiny to assault, absence without leave, house-breaking, conduct prejudicial to good orders and service discipline as well as offences relating to service property. And the punishment for these offenses is death by firing squad.

The court martial which will hold at the Nigeria Army Headquarters Garrison, Abuja, will try four Lieutenant Colonels, a major, four captains, five Lieutenants and one 2nd Lieutenant.

The Lieutenant Colonels are S.S. Tilawan, D.B. Dazang, I.C. Ogunmanya, and S.U. Abubakar.

The Major is I.I. Sakaba while the captains are Z. Alhaji, M . Hamadikko, M. B. Abdullahi, and S. Y. Musa, while the Lieutenants are T. Garba, F. Ogunleke, A. Abdullahi, I. M. Okoro, and D. Wunuji. The 2nd Lieutenant is J. M. Uweh.

The remaining 82 soldiers are of the rank and file and if they are found guilty, Nigeria will lose some of it's finest crops of officers and men to the fight against the Boko Haram insurgents, not at the war front but in a killing field ordered by the military authorities.

The GCM President, Brig. Gen. Musa Yusuf has given the assurance that the court would ensure a strict adherence to the principle of fair hearing and justice in its treatment of the cases before it.

Yusuf said that the court would ensure a holistic examination of evidence brought before it to ensure that no innocent person was convicted.

Let me further assure you that the GCM will base its decisions and findings only on facts presented before it. In other words, this court will not give room for or be influenced by any extraneous matter which is not presented before the court.

In consonance with the desire of this GCM to do justice in this case, we shall take cognisance of the postulation of Chukwudifu Oputa, a former Justice of the Supreme Court, that justice is a three-way traffic. That is: Justice for the accused persons, justice for the victim, justice for the state.

We intend to patiently and painstakingly listen to all evidence that will be brought before this court to ensure that no innocent person is convicted as it is better for nine guilty persons to go free than for one innocent person to suffer.

But many Nigerians believe that the court martial would not come out with a fair hearing, believing that the officers and men would face the same fate that befell the first set of 12 soldiers, the now famous Maiduguri 12, who were sentence to death for mutiny.