COURT-MARTIAL: 3 SOLDIERS GET LIFE IMPRISONMENT FOR SELLING ARMS, AMMUNITION TO INSURGENTS

A Special Court-Martial of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, Borno State, has sentenced three soldiers to life imprisonment and a fourth to fifteen years.

The convicted soldiers who bagged the life sentence are Sergeant RAPHAEL AMEH, Sergeant EJIGA MUSA, and Lance Corporal PATRICK OCHEJE.

Sergeant AMEH, who served as an armourer at the Seven Division Garrison, was found guilty of stealing ammunition from the armoury, which he supplied to criminals in Enugu and Ebonyi States.

Similarly, Sergeant MUSA, who served as the armourer of the 195 Battalion, was found to have conspired with Lance Corporal OCHEJE and several police officers to sell an AK-47 rifle and large quantities of ammunition.

On the other hand, Corporal OMITOYE RUFUS, was sentenced to fifteen years in prison for selling forty rounds of special ammunition to a police officer.

The soldiers were tried at the Officers’ Mess of the Theatre Command Headquarters in Maiduguri and found guilty of illegally selling arms in collaboration with police officers and terrorist groups.

The Court-Martial was presided over by Brigadier General UGOCHUKWU UNACHUKWU, the Acting General Officer Commanding Seven Division of the Nigerian Army, and Commander of Sector 1, Operation Hadin Kai.

In the judgment delivered by Brigadier General MOHAMMED ABDULLAHI, it shows that the Court-Martial examined bank records linking Sergeant AMEH to over one hundred suspicious transactions between July 2022 and June 2024.

It also shows that MUSA received over Five Hundred Thousand Naira from these transactions before he was arrested while attempting to sell additional rounds of ammunition.

Lance Corporal OCHEJE, deployed at the forward operating base in Molai, was also found guilty of stealing an AK-47 rifle belonging to a fellow soldier and diverting ammunition during communal clashes, acting on the instructions of a police officer.

Brigadier General ABDULLAHI described the convicts as “bad eggs” who had betrayed the trust, discipline, and honour expected of soldiers engaged in the fight against insurgency.

He also reaffirmed the Nigerian Army’s zero-tolerance for the sale of arms and ammunition to adversaries.