Due process wasn’t followed before sacking 38 senior military officers – Muhammed

In this interview with TOLUWANI ENIOLA, counsel for the 38 senior officers compulsorily retired by the army last year, Abdul Muhammed, urges President Muhammadu Buhari to interveneAbout a year ago, the Nigerian Army announced the retirement of 38 senior officers for alleged partisanship in the 2015 general election as well as involvement in defence contracts scam.  What is your take on the procedure of sacking the military officers?The present leadership of the Nigerian Army punished the 38 senior military officers by compulsory retirement in an action which was a breach of due process. It lacked fair hearing and the decision violated the provisions of the constitution of Nigeria.The army said the officers were corrupt, that they were involved in partisanship connected with the general elections of 2015 and that they  were involved in arms procurement contracts fraud.These are not true. Let’s break the issues down. Two panels were set up before June 2016 to investigate the alleged issues. The panel on the election was set up by the Chief of Army staff and it sat in Kaduna, headed by the then general officer Commanding 1 Division, Maj-Gen.  Adeniyi Oyebade, while the panel on arms procurement, headed by Retired AVM Jon Ode, sat in Abuja under the Office of the National Security Adviser.As we speak, the report of the panel on the elections, submitted in January 2016, has yet to be made public by the Army in any way.But the interim report on the arms issues was published by the army.…Yes, but the report was completed about six months after the Army had punished the Army 38 in December 2016. Kindly note: after, not before.How do you get to punish someone for involvement in arms procurement even before the panel looking into arms procurement had yet to conclude its work?I certainly don’t want to be understood as saying that the arms procurement scandal did not happen. I am merely saying that the persons  involved in those two issues were not the ones that were punished. This should make Nigerians ask questions from the present army leadership.Let me give you some context in numbers. In the list of 38 senior army officers are nine major generals, 10 brigadier generals, seven colonels, 11 lieutenant colonels and one major. We are talking about 1,000 years of military training and experience and billions of naira used to train these fine officers.But none of the 38 senior officers was ever charged, tried by a court-martial or found guilty of any offence in line with Armed Forces extant rules and regulations before they all heard of their retirement in the media. They were never investigated for any infraction; they were never indicted, they were never tried and they were never convicted of any disciplinary or criminal breaches.In his defence, the Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, claimed that the affected officers were retired based on ‘service exigencies’ and in line with the Armed Forces Act, CAP A20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. What is your take on this?When I heard Brigadier-General SK Usman, the army spokesman, make the assertion on behalf of Buratai, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.  What does exigency mean? Exigency means either ‘demands or state of emergency’. So, I ask, what service demands have made the Nigerian Army retire 38 senior officers without finding anyone of them guilty of an offence. It appears someone just wrote a list of names and retired them otherwise why weren’t they even queried? The exigency argument was first made in June 2016 and repeated by Major General John Enenche, the Defence spokesman, essentially because the Army came to the realisation that there was no factual basis to continue to assert that the Army 38 were corrupt, were involved in partisanship in elections or that they were involved in arms procurement.What does the military leadership then mean by service exigencies and how does it relate to the case of these retired officers?Clearly, this issue of service exigency is an afterthought. It is because there is no evidence to justify the reasons for retiring the officers.  But when we tried to examine the exigency proposition, it leads to more and more questions. For example, what are the exigency arguments that the Nigerian Army can make for sacking seven senior army officers from Rivers State? How exigent is it to purge Rivers State of the core of the officers from that state! What is the exigency argument for removing 24 senior army officers from the South-South and South-East zones of Nigeria? If anyone committed an offence, won’t you put him on trial and convict him to serve as a lesson to others? This was not done here because the officers are innocent.All military officers are entitled to appear before courts martial to ascertain their guilt or otherwise when accused or are alleged to have committed an offence. Why do you think the military didn’t go through this procedure before sacking the affected officials?Very simple, there is no evidence to support their claims that the Army 38 committed “serious offences”.  None of the Army 38 was court-martialled. None of the Army 38 was charged, tried or convicted by a court-martial.For instance, we were before the Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Committee of the Senate on October 17, 2017. The members of the committee had the Military Secretary as well as the Army Director of Legal Services, Brigadier Yusuf Shalangwa, before them. The senators asked the director of legal services to tell them why one of the Army 38 was punished by compulsory retirement. The army had no reason to give, none whatsoever! The committee members were shocked that Nigerian officers were treated so shabbily. Instead, Shalangwa said the army was aware of the officers’ petitions and that they were awaiting a response from the Presidency. That alone was clear evidence that they did not follow due process.Do you think that the sacking of the officers was a political move?I think the sacking of the Army 38 is a very significant indicator that all is not well with the Nigerian Army under its present leadership. The leadership has displayed a total disdain for due process, right to fair hearing and rule of law.Let’s look at the timeline again.  In June 2016, the Nigerian Army punished the Army 38 by compulsory retirement. These officers immediately wrote to President Buhari to review their cases. They wrote to the President through the chief of defence staff. I can tell you that more than one year after, those letters have not been taken to the President.How do we know this? We know because a court of competent jurisdiction had to make a specific order in June 2017 to compel the chief of defence staff to take the letters to the President. I will also tell you that, as we speak, the chief of defence staff has yet to comply with this order of the court.Is there corruption in the military hierarchy in terms of the way the body manages its human resources?Absolutely. The story of the Army 38 proves it.  For instance, in January 2016, the army recalled Major General Ahmadu Mohammed who is from Katsina State. This gentleman had been punished by compulsory retirement by the previous administration. However, due process was not followed in meting out punishment to him, and so this present army leadership recalled him. It was the right thing to do. The army leadership said at the time that the General was never queried, charged, tried or found guilty of any offence.The affected officers have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari, through the chief of defence staff, against their wrongful retirement from the Nigerian Army, seeking redress. Why do you think the President didn’t consider their appeal?Frankly speaking, I believe the President has been fed with false information by the defence and army leadership.  Otherwise, if what they told Mr. President is true, why the reluctance to hand over the petitions? They don’t want their deceit exposed and this confirms the need for a review. If what they did was correct, then why didn’t they come out and say so? Mr. President is a just and fair man, he will insist on due process and that justice must be done. You know that all of these Army 38 have spent their entire adult life in the army believing that the institution is just and fair. They believed that the army might seem harsh but that ultimately that the army is just. This episode of the army 38 has made all of them question their faith in this institution that they have loved and served with pride and distinction for so long. Since this sudden and premature retirement with their reputation tarnished, most of them have tales of woe. You will weep if you know the extent of the hardship and sufferings these officers and their families are experiencing.  The home of one of them got burnt down, he and his family escaped death by the whiskers. Another one was involved in a major accident. His car was a total write-off. So the psychological trauma of the retirement is what happened to Lt. Colonel Baba Ochankpa. The army broke his manly heart. That fine officer died literally of a broken heart.The widow of Lt. Col Baba-Ochankpa (Mrs. Ruth Baba-Ochanpka) deserves justice. His children deserve  justice. These beautiful children deserve to have removed the stain that the present army leadership has put on the memory of their father.What do you want the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to do on this matter? Shehu Othman Dan Fodio said a society can abide in the absence of religion but no society can survive the absence of justice.  If the President gets this, all I want to do is challenge him to give us justice. That’s all we ask.

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