Military authorities in Nigeria have dismissed rumours that soldiers earlier court martialed and sentenced to death on charges of mutiny have been reprieved.

When Channels Television sought clarification on the matter in a phone call to the Director of Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Usman, he dismissed the story as a ‘mere rumour’.

Colonel Usman said “if there had been any such development, an official public statement would have been made available.”

He insisted that without any official pronouncement on the matter, it remains a rumour.

A military court sitting in Abuja had condemned 54 soldiers serving with troops fighting the insurgency in boron state to death on December 17 last year after finding them guilty of mutiny against the authorities.

•Photo shows a court martial in session.