Army Denies Reabsorbing Soldiers Based On Regional, Ethnic Affiliations

The Nigerian Army (NA) has dismissed a report that a Court Martial sitting in 82 Division, Enugu convicted soldiers of Southern extraction, while those from Northern Nigeria were allowed to go free.

The director, Army Public Relations, Major General Onyema Nwachukwu in a statement said contrary to the report, the composition of the Court Martial was not based on regional representation, rather, the membership of the court was diverse, with personnel drawn from various regions of the country.

He said the soldiers were tried irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations, adding that the outcome was determined strictly based on the evidence presented.

“It is exigent to note that the President of the Court Martial is of northern extraction, while the Judge Advocate is from the South. Additionally, 60 per cent of the Court Martial members are of Southern extraction, demonstrating a fair and balanced representation, even though religion and ethnicity are not major focal criteria in the decision-making process of the NA.

“The decision of a Court Martial is collective and based on evidence presented during the trial.
“The said Court Martial tried the personnel, irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations and the outcome was determined strictly based on the evidence presented.

“In espousing the position of the NA in the cases mentioned in the report, taking that of Pte Usman Shonva for instance, wherein evidence revealed that there were other soldiers at the scene of the incident, who also fired their weapons, hence, the court, based on this finding among others, reached the conclusion that the shot that killed the dead soldier could have been fired by any of the soldiers at the scene, thus, leading to his discharge and acquittal,” he said.

General Nwachukwu reiterated that the Nigerian Army does not task its personnel (including for court martial membership) on a regional basis in order to achieve “national spread”.
“The NA is a composite national institution and not an ethnic militia. It will therefore not bite the odious bait being dangled to induce splintering along sectional, ethnic and religious fissures. The court martial proceedings were conducted in a fair and unbiased manner,” he stated.

He therefore called on the medium to refrain from peddling misinformation capable of engendering disaffection and disharmony among NA personnel, other services and security personnel and called on the general public to disregard the report.