Nigerian Soldiers: Secret Evidence At Mutiny Trial

David Edremoda Many soldiers are being court-martialed for alleged mutiny. Will the military kill them? The soldiers looked woebegone. They were led into the dock like cows into a slaughter slab. Poor souls! With creases on their foreheads, they shuffled and wringed their hands as they sat, hunched like letter “C”. The look on the face of each was vacant and distant, a human representation of sphinx. The first day the trial began, the military high command––determined to show the world that it was ready, in a pincer attack, to fight Boko Haram and, at the same time, deal ruthlessly with fifth columnists and deserters among the rank and file––invited the media to cover it. That was the trial of the 12 Nigerian soldiers who the military authorities sentenced to death on Monday 15 September 2004. The verdict which landed on the soldiers’ heads has, since then, generated much heat within the military and on civvy street. With glee, the Nigerian Defence apparatus again invited the Fourth Estate of the Realm to the trial of the Group of 60, or 59, as the case may be, which started on 15 October. In fact, the Army authorities thought this would be a walkover like the first. The fat generals, respledent in their starched uniforms, epaulettes, array of medals and swagger sticks, expected, as usual, that a recording of the proceedings would be brought to their offices by their ever-fawning batmen. However, it turned out that it would not be as easy the way hot knife would slice through butter. [caption id="attachment_14283" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •The Court Martial where 59 soldiers are being tried[/caption] What happened at that trial, especially, the revelations so embarrassed the military that the brass hats issued an order that journalists should not be allowed into the Mogadishu Barracks, Abuja, venue of the trial. In fact, this raised the antennae of TheNEWS into thinking that something subterranean was afoot. The medium, therefore, decided to tap its military sources. What it found could render many jaws hanging slack for days! The prosecution led the witnesses in evidence while they were cross-examined by the defence counsel. The issues that came up were poor funding, inadequate personnel, obsolete and limited equipment compared to those paraded by Boko Haram, Nigerian soldiers’ bogeyman. Defence counsel, according to military sources, argued trenchantly that given all the above, it would smack of suicide tendency to confront Boko Haram with little or no weapons and that, it would smack of injustice and sheer slaughter to sentence these soldiers to the gallows. Moreover, analysts argued, it flies against universal military tactics and strategy, as propounded by great authorities like Sun Tzu in his The Art of War and the German military theoretician, Cart von Clausewitz, to send soldiers to the war front with bad weapons and without adequate preparation. If, as Clausewitz propounded in his magnum opus, On War, that battle is “an act of violence to compel our opponent to fulfill our will”, analysts in Nigerian are of the opinion that for the country to make Boko Haram to stop violence, it must boost the morale of its soldiers and give them weapons to fight. However, the reverse is the case, according to the statements by the witnesses at the mutiny trial. The Group of 12 On 15 September 2014, Nigerian military authorities sentenced 12 soldiers to death for mutiny. They are Jasper Braidolor, David Musa, Friday Onu, Yusuf Shuaibu, Emmanuel Igomu, Andrew Ngbede, Nurudeen Ahmed, Ifeanyi Alukhagbe, Alao Samuel, Amadi Chukwudi, Alao Linus and Stephen Clement. However, because Jeremiah Ichocho was found guilty of Absence Without Official Leave, AWOL, he was sentenced to two years behind bars. The Brigadier-General C.C Okonkwo-led court discharged and acquitted five of the soldiers. Other members of the court martial are: Col T.S. Nurseman, Col. T.O. Olowomeye, Col. IG Lassa, Lt. Col J.K. Feboke, Lt. Col C.R. Nnebeife, Major I. Yusuf, Major T.A. Yakubu and Major A.E. Martins. Lt. Col. A.A. Audu and Lt. Col U Ukpe served as prosecutors. [caption id="attachment_14281" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •The 12 soldiers sentenced to death[/caption] The Court Martial said the soldiers were guilty of insubordinate behaviour, use of abusive language, and levelling false accusation against their superior officers. In fact, the Court Martial said the soldiers were guilty of attempting to kill their erstwhile General Officer Commanding 7 Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammed, by shooting at his official bullet-proof car at Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri, Borno State. That judgment was covered by the media. The Group Of 59/60 Sixty soldiers were, on 15 October 2014, dragged before a Court Martial, sitting at the Army Headquarters Garrison, Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja. This involves mutiny accusation against Corporal Andrew Ogolekwu and 59 others. The opening day was also covered by the media, when Captain J.E. Nwosu, who led the prosecution, made an oral application to the body that since Lance Corporal Anthony Simeon was indisposed, he was amending the number of the soldiers charged to read 59. He relied on Section 153 of the Criminal Code, which makes it mandatory for the accused to be available to defend himself personally, and rule 82 that allows the striking out of Simeon’s name in that circumstance. The Defence counsel, Femi Falana, SAN, who led Major Oluwanifemi Oyebanji (retd.), countered, arguing that the accused persons “were not standing trial as individuals but as a group”. However, the Brig Gen. M.S. Yusuf-led court martial granted the prayer of Nwosu. After this matter of number––60 or 59––was settled, charges were read against the accused persons: [caption id="attachment_14282" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •The 59 soldiers being tried for mutiny[/caption] That the soldiers, on 4 August, at Muleyi Primary School, Borno State, conspired to commit mutiny against the authorities of the Nigerian Army 7 Division, Maiduguri. Moreover, the soldiers were accused of refusing an order from the commanding officer, III Special Forces Battalion, SFB, to go on an operation in Delwa in a bid to recapture Damboa in Borno State from Boko Haram. Leader of the Prosecution team asked the commanding officer of the accused persons to step into the witness box. Thus, Lt. Col Timothy Chukwu Opurum said he instructed his men to move and put at bay the enemies along the paths to make it easy for the 251 and 254 Battalions to pass to Danboa. To prove that the soldiers were guilty of mutiny, he said they were hesitant. In fact, he revealed that when he ordered the soldiers to board the five Hilux vehicles and Armoured Personnel Carrier, APC, others, as Opurum said, obeyed, while others pig-headedly did not. Thus, he went off with five officers and 29 soldiers but 68 stayed back. However, the same commanding officer who accused all the soldiers of mutiny admitted, on cross-examination, that 47 of the 68 who refused joined the additional personnel he asked for from 7 Div Headquarters when the first batch he sent earlier was ambushed and overpowered at Delwa by Boko Haram. Before they returned from the operation though, 13 of those who refused to join were picked up by the Military police, but eight voted with their feet! As reported by the media that covered the trial, Falana, however, said that the prosecution had no evidence whatsoever to prove that the soldiers were guilty of mutiny. He demanded for the record of ammunition used in that military campaign. Up to this point, the media were allowed to be at the proceedings. After Opurum’s statement, which tended to contradict the “mutiny” charge, especially for the 47 that later joined the operation and many other things, the military High Command decided to shut out the press. In other words, from the second day, the matter held in secret. The Secret Statements When the court sat the following day, sans media coverage, the Defence counsel continued his cross-examination. However, TheNEWS was able, through military sources, to get what transpired at the Court Martial at Mogadishu Baracks, Abuja. In other words, the secret revelations began from here. Opurum first answered a question on the vertical ‘command and obey’ structure of how to proceed on operations. That is, order would emanate from Opurum’s superiors to him; he would brief his company commander, who would instruct the platoon commander who will brief his men. [caption id="attachment_14279" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Badeh: Chief of Defence Staff[/caption] The cross-examination proceeded to the system of carrying out an attack: advance to contact, advance to contact and pursue and advance in contact. Opurum, in his answer, admitted that advance requires enough planning and when asked about whether there was adequate planning, he replied that he and his officers and men had a hasty attack. And when he was asked what plans the Army had on 4 August 2014, he replied that these were in the areas of intelligence, equipment, air support and cover. When the Defence probed further, Opurum expatiated by mentioning the recce group and that he did both map recce and intelligence information from what was supplied by higher authorities. Did he ever verify what was on the map with facts on ground since the essence of recce (reconnaissance) was to be certain of the terrain he was going to? He did not! Here lies the problem, a military source told TheNEWS. He wondered why Opurum, a commanding officer, would receive map reconnaissance from the military high command without visiting the war front to ascertain the terrain! The military source told the magazine that even the General Officer Commanding, GOC, who escaped death, never visited the war front, and even President Goodluck Jonathan did not visit Chibok or other parts of the North-East. That, in his words, was unlike President Barack Obama of the U.S. and George Bush, Obama’s immediate predecessor in office who, many times, visited Iraq and Afghanistan and other trouble spots. The witness made another revelation that showed that all is not well. He said that the normal Nigerian Army fighting ratio is enemy one, Army three. However, what actually happened on ground at the time of combat reversed that ratio, when his men were beaten back by Boko Haram insurgents that were greater in number. Worse still, on 4 August, Boko Haram so overwhelmed the Nigerian soldiers that they lost one vehicle, one Grenade Machine Gun, GMG; one machine gun, and four AK-47 rifles. Opurum further admitted that in July this year, Boko Haram, who had superior strength, defeated Nigerian soldiers. Implicit in that admission is that Nigerian soldiers are poorly armed. At a point, there was a kind of hide and seek game between the Defence counsel and Opurum over the condition of his men when he took over in July. However, when pinned to a corner with a question that did all the soldiers under him (including those being charged for mutiny or refusal to fight) ask for equipment, Opurum said generally that all units in the North-East asked for equipment. This shows that soldiers in the North-East are poorly armed. Pressed further to tell the court about the number of weapons issued to soldiers, Opurum first said there were no records but as the cross-examination went on, he said there were records. The cross-examination veered back to what Opurum said in the open court the previous day about whether or not the 47 soldiers that deserted actually came back to participate in combat. The witness reiterated that they came on their own to join in the next operation to recapture Delwa, Bla Bling and Damboa. Moreover, Opurum made another revelation in that secret trial about “mind pollution” among the rank and file when he took over. But he was quick to point out that the expression was not his but headquarter 17’s prescription for desertion. Implied in that phrase is how morale has gone down in in the Army. This, according to another military source, has to do with the disposition of the Nigerian government to the soldiers when they are alive and their family members after their (soldiers’) death. A soldier told TheNEWS that families of dead soldiers are not even informed that their son is dead! There was another revelation about two of the accused persons who were seated in the court: Sudan Ananias and Private Douglas, who were being charged for mutiny. The second witness, Captain Saleh, admitted that he was the one that permitted them to go to town to collect something they wanted at about 17.00 hours. However, Saleh left with the other soldiers before the return of Ananias and Douglas. Yet the two are being charged with mutiny, a military source lamented. Saleh revealed further how the commanding officer, Opurum (Saleh is the second in command or 21c) and he were abused thoroughly by the soldiers. They did that without hearing what the commanding officer wanted to say. The duo had to leave with their vehicles as most of the drivers even refused to drive, Saleh told the court. He gave a vivid account of how he and his men were attacked by Boko Haram members (who operated for 25 minutes) and they had to withdraw because of their (weak) strength, compared to the insurgents’. This implies lack of adequate weapons. Saleh revealed further how his C.O. could not communicate with him on the field because the radio had limitations. Still, a question of equipment! Then the third prosecution witness, Corporal Francis Okoro, stepped in to answer questions. He was enlisted in 1994 into the corps of Military Police. He was part of the six-man team that investigated the soldiers on trial. He admitted that in the course of their investigation, the soldiers complained that they were not given support weapons except what he called Rocket Propelled Grenades, RPG, APC and General Purpose Machine Gun, GPMG. Even he said that on 12 August when he visited the army base before they moved, he did not see support weapons. As an investigating military police officer, Okoro said that in the course of his work, he spoke with Opurum, the C.O., who revealed to him that the soldiers being accused of mutiny complained of sickness and lack of equipment. The Group Of 5 More revelations came of out of this set of soldiers being tried for mutiny. On 21 October, military authorities at Mogadishu Barracks also commenced the trial of five soldiers who were charged with mutiny (Corporal Bankole Taiwo and four others). They were facing a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit mutiny in October 2013. They allegedly fired into the air when information got to them that their colleagues had been killed by Boko Haram in the North-East. Four prosecution witnesses––out of 11––have so far spoken: Lt. Col Abubakar Saddiq Bugaje, Captain O.O Cole, Captain Egwu Ogbona and Sergeant O. Popoola. Captain Joseph Nwosu led the witnesses in evidence. In his evidence for the prosecution of the accused soldiers, he revealed how, after Boko Haram attacked Nigerian soldiers, he and his men withdrew 10 corpses. While Opurum, the C.O., ordered that the corpses be deposited at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and not enter the military camp, one of the drivers drove straight to base, a development that made the soldiers to fire into the air. [caption id="attachment_14278" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Another group of five soldiers on trial[/caption] He explained how one Lance Corporal Adebayo Gbenga stepped out of the crowd and emptied his magazine on the C.O’s tent, destroying his personal belongings. Bugaje tried to scold the soldier who pointed his gun at his superior’s chest threatening to shool if he moved an inch! In his own statement, Cole told the prosecution that it was Anas Bawa’s carrying of the corpses into the camp that sparked the shooting. On 14 September, their C.O left Gubio camp for Maiduguri to brief the GDC. Col. B. Ahanofu, thereafter, came and said he wanted to address the troops. Cole revealed further that all of a sudden, Corporal Ayodele Olawale began to raise his voice, asking many questions, and the soldiers being addressed started firing shots. It was the turn of Capt Godwin Ogbona, another witness, who revealed more names, especially Corporal Sule Ochehepo who fired indiscriminately in the air and made some uncomplimentary statements about the commanding officer. Also, Sgt. Popoola Olusegun made a statement that Nigerian soldiers attacked a Boko Haram hideout at Kafiye forest but recorded some casualities, which some soldiers felt was avoidable. This, as Olusegun said, resulted in some soldiers firing their AK 47 rifles into the air indiscriminately. When their commander came to camp to address the troops, Olusegun said the angry soldiers boldly asked the senior army officer not to give him and his men bull shit. The comment, in the words of Olusegun, ignited the already tense atmosphere and many soldiers started to fire indiscriminately into the air. As he and others pulled Ayodele out of the crowd to stop his invectives against the C.O, he allegedly threatened the peace makers with his weapon. To Die Or Not? Sources at Mogadishu Barracks told TheNEWS that if the present 64 soldiers (59 plus five) are convicted like the first set of 12, they will have right of appeal to the Supreme Court. Also, their death warrant will stop on the table of President Goodluck Jonathan. [caption id="attachment_14280" align="aligncenter" width="300"] •Jonathan: Will he kill the soldiers[/caption] Apart from the fact that the process of killing soldiers in this kind of case is long, no elected president has ever signed the death warrant, not just of soldiers, in Nigeria. Will Jonathan spare the men? That is the question being asked by concerned Nigerians at home and the diaspora.