Death sentence on 54 soldiers, miscarriage of justice…

54 soldiers, who were sentenced to death on Wednesday by the General Court-Martial following their conviction on a two-count charge of conspiracy to mutiny and mutiny, have described their sentence as gross miscarriage of justice which cannot stand.

Fifty nine soldiers were put on trial by the court-martial, while five of them were discharged and acquitted.

The condemned soldiers, in a statement they issued through their counsel, Mr Femi Falana (SAN) argued that sending them to go and confront heavily armed Boko Haram terrorists without providing them with adequate weapons was asking them to go and commit suicide.

They said their refusal to obey orders of the Commanding Officer of the Special Forces Battalion, Lt. Colonel Opurum, was as a result of non availability of arms and ammunition to prosecute the instruction of the commander.

According to Falana’s statement, “Yesterday (Wednesday), the General Court-Martial sitting in Abuja which tried another batch of 59 soldiers for conspiracy to mutiny and mutiny convicted 54 of the accused persons and sentenced them to death while five were discharged and acquitted.

“The acquittal was designed to give the false impression that the dubious verdict was fair and just. The soldiers were in the Special Forces 111 Battalion 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…