Five years after the compulsory retirement of 38 senior officers unjustly by the Nigerian Army under Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, the injustices meted out to officers have continued to worsen the poor human rights record of the Nigerian Army, VANESSA OBIOHA writes

Though five years have passed since the Nigerian Army compulsorily retired 38 of its senior officers, the arbitrary manner in which they were sent packing has remained a ghost haunting the force.

On June 9, 2016, Nigerians woke up to the shocking news that 38 senior officers from the Army had been compulsorily retired. The then Army spokesman, Brig. Gen S.K. Usman, had declared that the officers were compulsorily retired on “disciplinary grounds, serious offences.’’

The alleged “serious offences” were said to include: Partisanship during the general election of 2015, involvement in arms procurement fraud and jeopardising national security.

The then Minister of Defence, Brig. Gen Mansur Dan-Alli (rtd) and the former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai himself, corroborated Usman’s statement, alleging further that due process and fair hearing were granted to all the officers and were found guilty by a competent legal procedure.

Buratai said: “It took us painstaking procedure to ensure we did not pick innocent ones. We started with one inquiry from One Division GOC to the other. After that, we subjected it to legal review. After the legal review, we forwarded our recommendations to higher authorities for consideration. So, it took us time; we have our own process also; our administrative process dovetailing into legal review and so on.”

However, it did not take long for Nigerians to know that none of the 38 officers were queried, charged, tried or found guilty of any offence, let alone even appearing before any court martial.

Several of the officers who felt the Army breached its extant rules and regulations in carrying out the retirements took their grievances to the courts to clear their names. This was after they had appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari for his intervention and reinstatement, but no response from the presidency or the army.

Seven of the officers have since won their cases in courts which ordered their reinstatement into the Force. The officers who got judgments against the Army are: Maj Gen Ijioma, Cols Hassan and Suleiman as well as Lt. Cols Thomas Arigbe, A.S. Muhammed, Dazang and Mohammed.

Added to these seven are another two officers who obtained National Assembly resolutions ordering their reinstatement.

Some of the officers who are still in their 40s are hoping that the Army authorities would carefully look into their cases in the interest of justice in order to continue to offer their military service to the country.

Curiously, before he was retired, Buratai disregarded the judgments of the courts and the resolutions of the National Assembly. This has worsened the poor human rights record of the Nigerian Army.

The Nigerian Army, under Buratai was not known to be a stickler to the rule of law.

In delivering his judgment on February 5, 2020 in Col M. A. Sulaiman v Nigerian Army and others, Justice Sanusi Kado corroborated the officers’ arguments by stating that: “The compulsory retirement of the claimant (Col MA Sulaiman), is hereby declared null and void and of no effect whatsoever, as it was not done in line with the extant rules and regulations.”

Other judgments followed similar pattern with the judges denouncing the actions of the Nigerian Army against the embattled officers and ordering their immediate reinstatement, promotion and payment of all their entitlements.

Among those compulsorily retired by the Nigerian military authorities were nine Major Generals, 10 Brigadier Generals, together with some Colonels and a major.

Analysts have argued that if the Generals cannot be reinstated because age and years of service have caught up with them, it is certainly not the case with those on the rank of colonels and below who are much younger in age and years of service.

To further validate the claims that the officers were perhaps innocent of the allegations the Army must have based its action on, it was reported that several of them were not even in Nigeria when they were compulsorily retired without fair hearing.

For instance, Lt. Col. Thomas Arigbe was a Directing Staff on a two-year Exchange Programme with the Ghana Armed Forces at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, while another, Col MA Suleiman, a national merit award winner for the safe rescue of several foreign hostages, was in Chad as military attache where his experience fighting the insurgents was being utilised.

There was also the case of Colonel Danladi Ribah Hassan, who led troops in recapturing Bulabulin and Damboa from Boko Haram in August 2014. Despite the fact that the National Industrial Court in Abuja since January 2019 ordered his immediate reinstatement for the injustice done to him, the Army has refused to obey the judgment.

THISDAY gathered that the immediate-past Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, was on the verge of acting on the impasse before he died with other senior army officers in a plane crash, in May 2021.

Investigations by THISDAY revealed that due to public perception that injustices were meted out to the officers, the incumbent Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Lucky Irabor recently called on the military authorities to obey the court judgments in favour of the officers and grant them voluntary retirement.

Irabor made the request in a letter he wrote to the Minister of Defence, Maj. Gen. Bashir Salihi Magashi (rtd) to revisit the issues surrounding the “arbitrary” retirement of the officers.

His action was based on series of letters by the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to resolve the impasse.

On February 15, 2021, Malami through the Solicitor General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, wrote another letter seeking an explanation on the matter from the then CDS, Gen. Olonisakin (rtd).

In the letter, Malami reminded the CDS that he was yet to receive any response for the initial letter he had sent, in order for him to advise Mr. President appropriately.

When Irabor assumed office CDS, still based on pressures, he was forced to write to the Minister of Defence, Magashi on the issue.

In the letter dated July 6, 2021 with reference No. CDS/8/A, Irabor cited the disobedience to court orders on the reinstatement, the intervention of the justice minister and other appeals to President Muhammadu Buhari on the plight of the officers.

The letter reads in part: “Meanwhile, to resolve and ensure compliance to the judgment, the Honourable Minister of Justice also intervened by imploring the Nigerian Army through the CDS to comply with the subsisting court judgment.

“It would be noted however that the issue remains unresolved hence this current appeal to revisit the 2016 compulsory retirement of the 38 senior army officers.

“Therefore, the appeal is being made on the need to motivate both serving and retired personnel, sustain morale and sharpen the psyche of the future generation of officers.

“The appeal, therefore, if upheld will ensure the primacy of military organisational values are kept permanently high without dampening morale or breeding mistrust.

“It is apt to state that reservists and retired military personnel are a vital workforce for advancing national interests, as such, must be carefully managed to check inordinate activities by highly skilled but disgruntled personnel.

“It is in view of the foregoing, and to lay the matter to rest, this appeal is recommending that the 38 NA senior officers be voluntarily retired with effect from January 1, 2018.”

Even though Irabor’s opening paragraphs clearly admitted that the procedures followed by the Army in retiring the officers were improper and arbitrary, observers feel that his recommendation that all the 38 officers should be voluntarily retired with effect from January 1, 2018 was not proper because it will deny the affected officers justice.

For instance, a retired senior military officer, who did not wish to be named, while discussing with THISDAY wondered why the Army would the retire the officers when the courts have already declared the retirements unconstitutional, null and void and ordered the reinstatement of the officers to the rank of their course mates and pay all outstanding allowances and emoluments as well as some punitive damages till date.

Though the officer commended the CDS for trying to intervene in the issue, he suggested that all the affected senior officers of the rank of Major Generals who have reached their runout dates should have their retirement converted to voluntary retirement and effective from their actual runout date while those that still have active years of service left be reinstated and promoted to their respective next rank.

“This is to ensure justice is done to them by putting their careers back on course as all the victimised officers are already behind their course mates by at least one promotion due to no fault of theirs. Since most of them have gallantly proved their worth in the counter-terrorism operations in North-east leading to the recovery of towns, elimination and arrest of thousands of terrorists, we are of the opinion that they would be a great asset in the anti-banditry and clearance mission against the criminals terrorising some northern parts of the country, especially in in Zamfara, Niger, Katsina and Sokoto states.

“There is a precedent for the recall of innocent and unjustly retired officers in the military and other services. The Buhari dministration, for instance, reinstated Major General Ahmed Mohammed, former GOC 7 Division, after two years in retirement with all his rights and privileges,” the retired officer explained.

(THISDAY: Excludes headline)

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