Mutiny verdict: It is a gross miscarriage of justice – Femi Falana

by Kolapo Olapoju

 

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has stated that the 54 soldiers sentenced to death for mutiny and conspiracy to commit mutiny, were sent on a suicide mission by their superiors.

According to Falana, who was the defence lawyer for the batch of 59 soldiers tried by the GMC, the soldiers’ refusal to obey the instruction was a refusal to commit suicide.

The Brig.-Gen. Musa Yusuf-led court martial in its judgment convicted the soldiers for disobeying an order of their commanding officer on August 4, 2014. Five of the 59 soldiers that were prosecuted were discharged and acquitted by the GMC.

In his statement, Falana said the soldiers should never have been convicted for mutiny for refusing to embark on a mission to fight Boko Haram without being provided with the necessary motivation and weapons.

He described the judgment as being characterized by “gross miscarriage of justice”, while saying the acquittal of five of the 59 accused soldiers was “to give the false impression that the dubious verdict was fair and just.”

He said the judgment would not stand, adding that he would explore all legal measures to stop the army authorities from carrying out the “genocidal verdict”.

In his statement entitled, ‘Halt the genocidal elimination of Nigerian soldiers’, he said, “We submit that the oath of allegiance taken by the accused soldiers is not a license to commit suicide. It is a solemn undertaking to defend the nation based on the expectation that the Federal Government would have complied with Section 217 of the Constitution on the mandatory requirement to equip the armed forces adequately.”

“It is important to state that when equipment was made available on 18 August 2014, the accused soldiers fought gallantly. The soldiers were in the SF 111 Battallion which has 174 instead of 750 soldiers.

“The soldiers in the Battalion were neither equipped nor motivated. They are young men whose ages range between 21 and 25. Most of them joined the army in 2012. With little or no training whatsoever they were deployed to fight the dreaded Boko Haram sect.”

“The funds allocated for payment of the salaries and allowances of the soldiers and for purchase of arms and ammunition are usually diverted and cornered by corrupt military officers.”

“Instead of bringing such unpatriotic officers to book the military authorities have engaged in the diversionary tactics of wasting the lives of innocent soldiers by sentencing them to death without any legal justification.”

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