Twelve Nigerian soldiers were on Tuesday
sentenced to death for mutiny after shots were
fired at their commanding officer in the restive
northeast city of Maiduguri earlier this year.
A nine-member military tribunal, sitting in Abuja,
convicted the soldiers following the incident on
May 14 when shots were fired at the
commanding officer of the Nigerian Army's 7th
Division, which is tasked with fighting Boko
Haram insurgents.
Court president Brigadier General Chukwuemeka
Okonkwo said the sentences were subject to
confirmation by Nigeria's military authorities but
added there was no doubt about the gravity of
the offence.
The panel considered "its likely effect on the
counter-insurgency operations in the northeast as
well as its implications on national security", he
told the court.
Nigeria's army has been under pressure to end
the bloody five-year insurgency that has claimed
thousands of lives, made tens of thousands of
others homeless and seen the militants make
territorial gains in the northeast in recent weeks.
Front-line troops have frequently complained of a
lack of adequate weapons and equipment to fight
the rebels.
Residents in towns raided by the Islamists have
said the insurgents are often armed with rocket-
propelled grenades and anti-aircraft weapons
mounted on trucks and, in some cases, armoured
personnel carriers.
Soldiers by contrast have at times reportedly
lacked ammunition and been sent out to the
bush to fight without basic communication
equipment.
Last month, dozens of Nigerian soldiers refused to
deploy for an offensive to try to retake the
captured Borno town of Gwoza, which the
Islamists claimed as part of an Islamic caliphate.
Soldiers' wives also demonstrated at the gate of a
military base in Maiduguri trying to stop their
husbands from heading to Gwoza without proper
equipment.
One of the protesting soldiers, who set up camp
on the outskirts of Maiduguri, said at the time:
"We are being killed like chickens by Boko Haram
because we are not given the required weapons
to fight. We say enough is enough."
The country's military spokesman Chris Olukolade
denied the troops had mutinied and told AFP that
Nigerian soldiers were "too disciplined and
patriotic to indulge in this dangerous offence".
The military has also rejected claims that
hundreds of troops shouldered arms and fled
their posts in border towns overrun by Boko
Haram.
President Goodluck Jonathan has asked
lawmakers to approve a $1 billion (750 million
euros) foreign loan to upgrade the capacity of the
military, which was seen as a tacit
acknowledgement that troops were being out-
matched.
The court martial heard that on the day in
question, the soldiers from 101 Battalion opened
fire at a convoy containing the 7th Division
commander General Amadu Mohammed at an
army medical centre in Maiduguri.
The soldiers had demanded that Mohammed
speak to them after a number of their colleagues
were killed in an ambush on the way back from
the Borno state town of Chibok.
The previous month, Boko Haram fighters
kidnapped more than 200 girls from their school
in the town, triggering global outrage.
Witnesses said the soldiers became unruly and
threw stones at an officer when he arrived and
shots were fired into the air. Mohammed then had
to take cover as they trained their guns on him
but he was not injured.
"The soldiers succeeded in shooting at his staff
car, thereby causing bullet impressions at the
right rear door where the GOC (general officer
commanding) sat," Okonkwo told the court.
"He said thank God for the staff officer who
rushed him into his car and the fact that the staff
car is an armoured plated vehicle."
Eighteen soldiers in total, ranked from private to
corporal, were charged with mutiny, criminal
conspiracy, attempted murder, disobeying
orders, insubordination and false accusation.
Twelve were sentenced to death for mutiny, one
was given 28 days' hard labour on another count
and five were acquitted. All pleaded not guilty.
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