Tuesday, September 16, 2014

The 12 soldiers who attacked their GOC in Maiduguri have been sentenced to death


13 out of the 18 soldiers standing trial for participating in the mutiny (revolt action) against their General Officer Commanding, Maj. Gen. Ahmed Mohammed at the newly created 7 Division of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri on May 12thhave been sentenced to death by a military court that sat in Abuja yesterday night September 15th.

Five others were discharged and acquitted while one was jailed for 28 days with hard labor. Choi, they should temper justice with mercy biko o. Continue

The soldiers had on May 14th revolted against poor remuneration and lack of sophisticated weapons to fight Boko Haram. On that particular day, the soldiers lost their cool after seeing the corpse of some of their colleagues killed by Boko Haram men. They immediately opened fire on their GOC, who luckily escaped unhurt.

The President of the Court Martial (military court), Maj. Gen. C.C. Okonkwo, while delivering his judgement said the 12 soldiers were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, mutiny, attempt to commit murder (shooting at the vehicle of the GOC); insubordination to a particular order; insubordination and false accusation.
Those sentenced 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.

The legal team of the convicts pleaded with the court martial to be lenient and temper justice with mercy stating that some of the men convicted were the sole providers of their families. One of the convict is said to be the only child of his 80 year old mother while another is said to be the father of a 5-month old baby. The legal team argued that giving them maximum sentence would do more harm than good, adding that it would increase the agony of their dependants.

Other members of the court are: Col. TS Nurseman, Col. TO Olowomeye, Col. IG Lassa, Lt.Col. JK Feboke, Lt. Col. CR Nnebeife, Major I Yusuf, Major TA Yakubu and Major AE Martins.
Lt. Col. AA Audu and Lt. Col. U Ukpe served as prosecutors.

Boko Haram reportedly abduct men and women in Adamawa state


 Daily Times is  reporting that about 50 men and women were abducted after an attack on Gulak community in Adamawa state on Saturday September 13th.

The residents of the community reportedly confirmed that the attack took place and people, including married women were loaded into trucks and taken away.


Musa Uba, a resident of Husra village in Michika LGA which is one of the villages that came under heavy attack said able-bodied young men were forcefully converted into the sect after recruitment efforts through preaching failed to attract volunteers.
“They conducted preaching sessions to attract converts to their sect but people only listened out of fear. The next day they asked if anybody wanted to join them but there was no response, so they selected many healthy looking young men and ordered them to follow them. One of the victims is my relative who did body building exercises regularly,” he said.