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

Reject List From Countries In breach Of 30 Percent Women Representation – Njai Tells ECOWAS Parliament

A Gambian representative to the ECOWAS Parliament, Honorable Fatoumatta Njai has challenged the Community Parliament to reject list of countries that are short of thirty percent women’s representation to the Parliament. Speaking in an exclusive interview at the official Opening Ceremony of the Fifth Legislature’s delocalized meeting of the Joint Committee on Social Affairs, Gender and Women Empowerment / Education, Science and Culture/Health, currently holding in Monrovia, Liberia on the theme, “ Empowerment of Women in the ECOWAS Region.” Njai said that some countries lack female representation in the Conference of Bureau, this according to her is disregarding the ECOWAS Rules of Procedure. “The Rules of Procedures mentioned that each member country should have a female representation at the Conference of Bureau. Each country has three members in the Conference of Bureau, so each country can at least have one female member which will be thirty percent representation. I thin...
Post a Comment
Read more
ECOWAS Parliament pushes for immediate solutions to region's humanitarian crisis Lawmakers of the ECOWAS Parliament says its seeking to invoke its parliamentary powers to resolve the humanitarian crisis across region. This is following the report presentation by the Parliamentary Joint committee on Political Affairs, Peace and Security and APRM/Legal and Judicial Affairs, Human Rights, Protection of the Child and Vulnerable Groups on the security of the Region. As contained in the report, the political situation in the Republic of Guinea as well as the political and security situation in Mali among others, calls for serious attention most especially as it regards to pre and post-election situations, and which also arises from the preparedness level for the presidential elections that are planned in 2020.  Honourable Snowe Jnr of Liberia responding to the report said that there is an urgent need for the ECOWAS Parliament to utilize its power ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Deploy Technology for free and credible elections- Goodluck Jonathan challenge ECOWAS

Ifeanyi Valentine Nigeria’ s Former President, Dr.Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has called on the ECOWAS Sub region to utilize the possibility of technology in our electoral process so as to have free and fair elections. He said this while making his contribution as one of the panelists at the ongoing First Extra Ordinary Session put together by the Fifth Legislature of ECOWAS Parliament holding in Monrovia the capital city of Liberia. According to him the reason why citizens of the sub region often times lost confident in their leaders is because they believe the use the power of incumbency to manipulate the electoral system so as to continue to perpetuate themselves in power even at the detriment of the people. He said that if full technology is deployed in all the stages involved in the electoral process the elections will not only be free and fair but it will completely eliminate the manipulation and rigging of election results.’ “When technology is deployed across board you w...
Post a Comment
Read more