By Sam Kayode
A total of 227 cases have been disposed off by three different Army Court Marshals of Operation Hadin Kai in the North East..
Disclosing this during the inauguration of a second Special Court Martial in which 29 more cases are to be handled, Theatre Commander Operation Hadin Kai, Major General Chris Musa, said all the cases concerning the officers are subject to further scrutiny by the Army Council which is the final arbiter for such trials.
A run down of the concluded cases include 82 from the General Court Martial-one, 119 from General Court Martial 2 and 26 from Special Court Martial 1 all inaugurated last year.
“In total, 227 cases have been dispensed with since we inaugurated the Court Martials October 2021 last year and were dispensed with by April 2022.
” For the soldiers Army Headquarters is the final authority on the judgements but for the officers, we would have to wait until the Supreme Council of the Army is done with reviewing all the cases. Then we will announce the final out come.
A run down of the details of the judgements indicated that 30 personnel were recommended for imprisonment, while 4 received outright dismissal from the Army.
Going by the letters of the judgement at least 25 Officers will loose their seniority while 20 will loose their pay as recommended while 17 will receive severe reprimand from the Army authorities for their offenses.
10 of those who went into the trial were discharged and acquitted while 14 cases were struck off.
General Musa in an interview with newsmen after the inauguration said that a whopping 107 officers were recommended for summary trials by the three court martials and that informed the second special Court Martial.
” Nigerian Army is not a rag tag Army. That is why we have to do this so that Officers and men will be disciplined at all times.
“It pains me when we have to put our Officers and men on trial like this because we are aware of the sacrifices they make to keep this nation together but this is the only way discipline can be maintained in a standard Army.
The second Special Court Martial will examine only 29 cases before it rounds up for the year.
