Skip to main content
4 Army Officers jailed 10 years for torturing corporal to death


A General Court Martial in Abuja on Friday sentenced Majors Akeem Oseni, Ogbemudia Osawe, Captain S. Amosu and Second Lieutenant Nuhu Dogary to 10 years in prison for torturing L/Corporal Benjamin Collins to death.

The officers were said to have moved Collins from a guardroom at Mogadishu Barracks, Abuja, where he was being held to a bush near Ihejirika quarters along Abuja-Nyanya expressway where he was said to have been assaulted while in handcuffs and leg chains.

Collins, who hailed from Rivers State, died after the assault which took place on February 23, 2017 and his corpse was deposited at Asokoro general hospital mortuary.

After the incident, the convicts were said to have reported to their superiors that Collins had escaped from custody.

He was said to have been detained for over two years for allegedly travelling to Lagos to see his sick aunt without official permission.

The officers were found guilty of manslaughter by the GMC, which was comprised of the President, Brigs. Gen. G. Umelo; S. Aliyu, A. Edet, Brig. N. Mohammed, Cols. K. Ndamadu, T. Agbor, and I. Tanko.

The prosecution team included Major John Orumor, Capts, P. Ogbuiya, David Ighodaro and Lt. T. Azi, while the Judge advocate was Daniel Ehicheoya.

The convicts were defended by Majors Femi Oyebanji, Mike Kwekwenbo (retd.) and Isa Shuaibu.

The judgment, it was gathered, was subject to confirmation by the Army Council headed by the Minister of Defence.

Our correspondent learnt that the four officers had been moved to a cell following their conviction.

Investigations by our correspondent indicated that the military probe into Collins’ death and the subsequent trial of the convicts were motivated by a petition from the deceased’s lawyer, Johnson Oyewole of Delu Consulting Firm.

Collins, who enlisted in the Army in 2011, had contacted Oyewole after he was arrested in Lagos for the alleged offence of absence without leave and detained at 81 Division Garrison Provost cell, Obalende, from March 2014 till June 2016.

He was subsequently moved to Army headquarters garrison, Abuja, on January 27, 2017 where he was further held in leg chains in the cell at Mogadishu cantonment.


Source: Punch

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Buhari re-appoints Yakubu as INEC Chairman

  The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has re-appointed Prof Mahmood Yakubu as the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission. The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday titled “President Buhari nominates Prof Yakubu as INEC chairman for second term in office.” The statement read, “President Muhammadu Buhari has presented the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, for a second term in office. “In a letter to President of the Senate, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, the President said in accordance with the provision of Section 154 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), ‘I am pleased to present for confirmation by the Senate, the nomination of Professor Mahmood Yakubu for appointment as Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for a second and final term.’ “Prof Yakubu was first appointed by P...
Post a Comment
Read more
Benin Republic set to review Constitution on terms of Political Office. In a year when many countries on the continent and in West Africa are changing their constitutions to allow for incumbent presidents to run yet again, the Beninese National Assembly has approved a major constitutional reform to discuss the precision on the two terms of office of the President of the Republic among other issues. Detailing the political situation of Benin at the floor of the ECOWAS Parliament, the country report presented contained that the constitutions review was to address the current political situation of the country marking a new Republic following two unsuccessful attempts. The report stated that “Benin Republic has after the April 2019 Legislative elections experienced a tense atmosphere following the frustrating feelings from political group who were unable to participate in the legislative elections, due to the inability to meet the requirement on the law on the constit...
Post a Comment
Read more

IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW SIM REGISTRATION RULES

Following the earlier directive on the suspension of new SIM registration by network operators, the Honourable Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Ibrahim (Pantami) convened an urgent meeting of key stakeholders in the Communications industry on Monday, December 14, 2020.   The meeting had in attendance the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Management of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), as well as the CEOs and Management staff of all service providers in the industry.   At the meeting, the need to consolidate the achievements of last year’s  SIM registration audit and improve the performance and sanity of the sector was exhaustively discussed and all stakeholders agreed that urgent drastic measures have now become inevitable to improve the integrity and transparency of the SIM registration process.   To this end, t...
Post a Comment
Read more