Political Briefs
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TWELVE Nigerian soldiers who were found guilty of mutiny and other offences are to face firing squad. A military court sitting in Abuja handed down the sentence on Monday, September 15. The court found 13 out of the 18 soldiers standing trial for mutiny and other offences guilty. As such, 12 of them were sentenced to death, five were discharged and acquitted while the remaining one was jailed for 28 days with hard labour.
The soldiers had on May 14, 2014 fired shots at Ahmed Mohammmed, a major general and the General Officer Commanding the newly created 7 Division of Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, Borno State. The act, in the military, is regarded as mutiny.
C. C. Okonkwo, a major general and the President of the Court Martial, said the 12 soldiers were found guilty of three of the most heinous charges bars. Okokwo said they were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, mutiny, attempting to commit murder (shooting of the vehicle of the GOC); insubordination to a particular order; insubordination and false accusation.
Before the conviction, the legal team pleaded with the court martial to temper justice with mercy. Those discharged and acquitted are David Robert, Mohammed Sani, Iseh Ubong, Sebastine Gwaba and Naaman Samuel. Jeremiah Echocho was sentenced to 28 days with hard labour.
Those who were sentenced to death are Jasper Braidolor, David Musa, Friday Onuh, Yusuf Shuaibu, Igonmu Emmanuel, Andrew Ugbede, Nurudeen Ahmed, Ifeanyi Alukagba, Alao Samuel, Amadi Chukwuma, Alan Linus, and Stephen Clement.
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Seventeen Killed at FCE Suicide Attack
AS many as 17 people were killed when an Improvised Explosive Device, IED, thrown into a lecture hall at the Federal College of Education, Kano, exploded on Wednesday, September 17. More than 30 other persons sustained injuries.
Eyewitness said lecture was going on when two terrorists walked in and threw two objects that exploded within seconds. The blast was accompanied by sporadic gun shots as some of the gunmen, who were stationed outside the lecture hall, opened fire on some of the students who tried to escape from the scene.
The incident which occurred at about 2.00pm at the school’s new site located at Gadon Kaya, caused pandemonium as students, lecturers and visitors to the school scampered for safety. Within the neighbourhood, residents locked up their houses, while shop owners in the vicinity hurriedly closed businesses as confusion engulfed the area.
The prompt response of security agents at the nearest check point, however, saved the day as they engaged the gunmen and shot two of them to death.
Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan in a condolence sent to the people of Kano State assured them and other Nigerians that the federal government would do everything possible to increase the capacity of the nation’s security services to prevent attacks on innocent citizens by terrorists.
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No Place for APC in Abia State – Ogbuka
THE Abia State chapter of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has assured members that there is cause for anxiety for the party in the state. Uchendu Ogbuka, publicity secretary of the party in the state, stated in a press release that the opposition All Progressive Congress, APC, could not upset the ruling party in any election in the state.
Ogbuka said the APC “as far as Abia State is concerned is dead on arrival and non- existent.” The state’s spokesman who was reacting to a recent media comment credited to Nyerere Anyim, national vice-chairman (South East) of the APC, where he allegedly criticised the PDP- led government in the state over the state of infrastructure in Aba, said that the current administration in the state led by Governor Theodore Orji had surpassed all previous administrations in the state put together particularly in the areas of infrastructural development, quality health care delivery, security, education , youth empowerment, human capital development, and a host of other key sectors of the economy.
The party claimed that never in the history of the state had the democratic space been so democratised as currently obtained in the state. The PDP, therefore, challenged critics of the Orji administration to be courageous enough to “juxtapose the achievements of the governor with what his predecessors bequeathed to the state and see who Abia hero should be.”
According to Ogbuka, opposition parties in the state only exist on the pages of newspaper and cannot boast of winning a polling unit in the upcoming elections the state.
He restated the party’s earlier submission that the 2015 general election would be a mere walk-over by the PDP because of Governor Orji’s unprecedented, monumental and undeniable achievements in less than four years.
— Sep. 29, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT
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