Army Commutes Life sentence of 27 soldiers to 7 years Imprisonment

Aug

2009

By NVS

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigeria's army reduced the life sentence of 27 former U.N. peacekeepers convicted of mutiny for staging a protest over pay to seven years, the military said on Sunday.

The Nigerian soldiers, four of them women, were convicted in April for a violent protest last year in the southwest town of Akure, the state capital of Ondo state.

"The sentence of life imprisonment given to all the convicted soldiers has been commuted to seven years imprisonment," said army spokesman General Chris Olukolade.

The troops were pressing for the payment of tens of thousands of dollars of their peacekeeping allowance, which was embezzled by officers.

They barricaded the busy Lagos-Ibadan-Abuja highway in July 2008 and harassed travellers, before looting shops in Akure.

"Soldiers cannot exercise the same rights or approach to protests like civilians. Those who argue ... should consider the effect such acts of indiscipline can have on the security, orderliness and survival of other countries," Olukolade said.

A court in January convicted four army officers and a soldier of stealing $68,541 from Nigerian troops returning from U.N. peacekeeping missions in Liberia.

The court had ordered the convicted officers be demoted after they were found guilty of diverting funds meant for peacekeeping troops to another military unit.

The officers, including a deputy director of finance at army headquarters, then paid the soldiers less than the $5,040 each approved by the United Nations, sparking the protest.

Your Comments

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Robot

# 1 | 29.08.2009 22:26

	...Read the full article.

I Love Nigeria I Love Nigeria is offline

# 2 | 29.08.2009 22:57

	This is certainly good news. But it is still, good news of a half-loaf variety! I implore and urge our president to use the forthcoming 50th political indepence anniversary and our national day, as an opportunity to be magnanimous and pardon all these brave women and men in our uniform.

emj

# 3 | 29.08.2009 23:14

	Ohun ti oda oda...if they really want to pardon them..they shld let them go...not commute.....and even to me they had no choice but to look for a strong way of asking for what is theirs....i hope a Daniel will cause the real release of this ones soonest...they dont deserve a day in jail nor be treated this way....this is mean...complete pardon or they shld stuff it...nonsense:p

Gbolly Gbolly is offline

# 4 | 30.08.2009 00:39

	I thank God for them. The prayers of God people had been answered. Hallelujah!

felix

# 5 | 30.08.2009 01:11

	Good news? That a man whose deserved earnings were brazenly stolen by his superiors is going to be locked up for 7 years? This is good news? When will the pot bellied Generals responsible for the disappearance of their wages been jailed too? Are the poor soldires supposed to be in prison in the first place if the right thing was done? It will be "good news" when the jailed soldiers get their pay and the corrupt Generals responsible for the looting spree that led to the protest in the first place are actively rounded up and sent to some dingy jails. Ofcourse that won't happen because "good news" seldom come out from that evil organisation called the Nigerian army.

Dapxin Dapxin is offline

# 6 | 30.08.2009 01:23

	good news? oh! I guess, that meant to caption that the dead-man survives his latest bouts of injections/infusions in Saudi.... Oshisko.

ajimoh ajimoh is offline

# 7 | 30.08.2009 08:06

	I commend the Chief of Army Staff for responding to the petition written on behalf of those soldiers by the indefatigable Femi Falana . However, the Chief of Army Staff and the President must do the right thing by God, especially in the month of Ramadan and the approaching independence anniversary. The transcript of the trial, which the Chief of Army Staff himself and the Presidency can easily see, clearly shows that these soldiers could not have been convicted by any fair-minded Court-Martial. The President of the Court was biased, displayed biased and was openly antagonistic towards the defence team. The conviction itself will most certainly be overturned by the Court of Appeal and the Court Martial will not escape legal criticism for failing to follow the laws of our land, a part of which military law is. It is wrong to convict soldiers who were lawfully exercising their fundamental rights to protest a most grievous injustice just like any civilian and as guaranteed under the constitution of Nigeria. The Army spokesman is certainly wrong in saying that soldiers cannot exercise the same fundamental rights to protest like civilians: in CPL Segun Oladele & 22 Ors. v. Nigerian Army (2003) 36 WRN 68; (2004) 6 NWLR (PT 868) 166, the Court of Appeal held that the fact that the Appellants were soldiers should not deprive them of their fundamental rights as Nigerian citizens.

Danmeka Danmeka is offline

# 8 | 30.08.2009 09:01

	What good news, they serve 7 years and get booted out of the army and joined the unemployed. Is this justice? The individuals who held their pay are demoted and still in the army. Is this justice?

nijalaw nijalaw is offline

# 9 | 30.08.2009 15:21

	The court of appeal shall set them free, the 7 years is not their portion.

akuluouno akuluouno is offline

# 10 | 31.08.2009 05:46

	Villagers, Let me join the others in thanking the Nigerian Army High Command for their magnanimity towards these soldiers. I believe as I said earlier on that they were misled into thinking that soldiering and trade unionism were one. I still hope that more shifts would be made to eventually set them free seeing that they have learnt their lessons and that for even having the guts to wear the uniform, they were ab initio more patriotic than those who swindled the banks of brazillions of Naira:D The word brazillion came about when former President G Bush was informed that two Brazilian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. The man became very remorseful and sad. His advisers surprised at Bush's extreme concern could not fathom the reason until Bush turned to one of them and asked how many U.S soldiers make up one brazillion:clap: