Court martial: 3 convicted soldiers appeal judgment

THREE out of the 12 soldiers sentenced to death by the military general court martial on September 15 have dragged the Nigerian Army before the Court of Appeal, Abuja, where they are challenging the death sentences passed on them.
The soldiers, Igomu Emmanuel, Stephen Clement and Andrew Ngbede, with service numbers 09NA/62/1648/LCPL, 03NA/53/1816/CPL and 09NA/64/4214/PTE respectively, filed their appeal before the appellate court last week Thursday through their lawyer, Chief Godwin Obla.
The appellants, in the appeal hinged on 11 grounds, argued that the general court martial erred in law and came to a perverse decision by convicting them in respect of the offence of conspiracy and failed to consider the defense of alibi which they raised timeously, but which was never investigated by the court martial.
“The general court martial erred in law and thus occasioned a miscarriage of justice when it disregarded the objection of the defence counsel raised before and at the arraignment of the appellant on the defective nature of the charge brought against the appellant,” one of the grounds read.

On the particulars of the error in ground one of their appeal, the soldiers noted that they were charged and convicted at large under Section 114 of the Armed Forces Act, as the charge did not tie the offence they allegedly committed to any of the subsections of the section and that the section did not define the offence of criminal conspiracy as an offence known to law.
The soldiers maintained that the entire charge upon which they were tried and convicted was vague, disjointed, imprecise and incoherent and that they did not understand the charge, neither were their individual names stated on the charge.
On the second ground of the appeal, the soldiers averred that the general court martial erred in law and thus came to a perverse decision when it based its decision solely on an equivocal and suspicious circumstantial evidence in convicting them for attempt to commit murder.
They observed that the General Officer Commanding 7 Division, Major-General Ahmadu Mohammed, whom they allegedly attempted to murder, by firing shots at his official vehicle, was never led by the prosecution to give evidence on the alleged attempt on his life at their trial and that no ballistic evidence was led at the trial to show that it was their shot that hit the rear of the car in issue.
They urged the court to allow their appeal, set aside the decision of the general court martial and to discharge and acquit them.
They also wanted the court to order the payment of dues and outstanding peculiarly benefits or otherwise accruing to them.
No date, however, has been fixed for the hearing of the appeal.
TRIBUNE  http://www.tribune.com.ng/news/news-headlines/item/18489-court-martial-3-convicted-soldiers-appeal-judgment