Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has written a letter to the
President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), requesting that the
pardon given to repentant Boko Haram members be extended to 70 soldiers
convicted for mutiny during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Falana said this in a letter dated August 25, 2021 titled, ‘Request to Grant Pardon to 70 Convicted Soldiers’.
The
activist recalled that in prosecuting the war on terror, the Federal
Government deployed thousands of ill-equipped and ill-motivated members
of the armed forces to the North-East region to fight the well armed
insurgents from 2013 to 2014.
He said in the course of defending
the country the troops demanded arms and armament from the military
authorities but they were punished.
“Instead of attending to such
legitimate demand, the military authorities accused scores of the
soldiers of sabotaging the counter insurgency operations of the Federal
Government and proceeded to set up courts-martial to try them for
mutiny.
“We defended 58 soldiers while the remaining 12 were
defended by other colleagues before the Courts-Martial which sat in
Abuja. At the end of the trials in August and December 2014, the
Courts-Martial jailed some of the soldiers and sentenced 70 others to
death for mutiny,” Falana said.
He added that in convicting the
70 soldiers, the courts martial failed to appreciate that the demand for
weapons by the soldiers was justified under section 179 of the Armed
Forces Act, (Cap A20) Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 which
permits a soldier, rating or aircraftman to make a complaint to his
commanding officer and that he shall not be penalised for having made a
complaint so far as the complaint does not contravene any provisions of
the Act.
The senior advocate called on Buhari to grant full and
unconditional pardon to the 70 convicted soldiers pursuant to section
175 of the constitution.
He recalled that even the then National
Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd); and the Chief of Defence
Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, later admitted that the troops did not
have enough weapons.
Falana noted that a probe instituted by
Buhari revealed how over $2.1bn meant for weapons was diverted by the
top military brass, evidence that indeed the 70 soldiers were justified
in their demand for weapons.
The activist said the Court of
Appeal had upheld the appeal of four out of the 70 convicts, discharged
and acquitted them while the others who lost their appeal at the Court
of Appeal had since taken the legal battle to the Supreme Court.
The
letter further read, “Notwithstanding the pendency of the appeal at the
apex court we urge Your Excellency to exercise your prerogative of
mercy in favour of the entire 70 convicted soldiers.
“It is
public knowledge that the Federal Government and some state governments
have recently granted pardon and rehabilitated hundreds of terrorists
who had waged war against Nigeria and subjected unarmed citizens to
egregious human rights abuse.
“The soldiers who were convicted of
mutiny for demanding for weapons to fight such terrorist deserve to be
granted pardon and rehabilitated by the Federal Government.”
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