Seven years after illegal dismissal, Nigerian Army officer writes Tinubu
Mr Mohamed and 37 other senior officers were illegally forced to retire by the army in June 2016.
Abdulfatai Mohammed, one of the 38 army officers arbitrarily sacked in 2016, has sought the intervention of President Bola Tinubu after the Nigerian Army refused to obey the court injunction ordering his reinstatement.
Mr Mohamed and 37 other senior officers were forced to retire by the army in June 2016. The mass dismissal affected nine major generals, 11 brigadier generals, seven colonels and 11 lieutenant colonels.
However, investigations showed the authorities acted illegally, and the National Industrial Court has ordered the reinstatement of Mr Mohammed and others.
But despite the court order, the Nigerian army and President Muhammadu Buhari refused to ensure justice by reinstating the soldiers, who are some of the country’s brightest in internal and external security operations.
One of the officers, Ojebo Ochankpa, died in 2017 while awaiting justice. Their statutory appeal for redress to President Buhari within 30 days of their sacking, and other letters subsequently, were neither acknowledged nor replied to, according to documents seen by IN4MATIONPLUG.
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This matter is one of Nigeria’s worst cases of arbitrariness, disregard for the court and shabby treatment of her heroes under Mr Buhari, a former major-general, who was a civilian president for eight years.
Appeal to President Tinubu
On 27 July this year, Mr Mohammed submitted a letter to Mr Tinubu’s office, urging the president to prevail on the army to obey the court orders that declared his retirement illegal.
Mr Mohammed said he wrote the letter based on the “avowed commitment to justice” the president indicated in his “inauguration speech.”
In the letter seen by NANS, Mr Mohammed described his compulsory retirement as “malicious and wrongful” action that was followed up with “reputational damage actions in the media.”
In 2016, the Nigerian army cited “service exigencies, corruption in arms procurement, and partisanship” as what constituted the “serious offences” that warranted the compulsory retirement of the 38 officers.
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However, in his letter to President Tinubu, Mr Mohammed said he was never found guilty of corruption in arms procurement or partisanship in elections.
“I was never involved in any of the issues highlighted and/or any wrongdoing whatsoever. My compulsory retirement was without due process as it was a clear departure from the disciplinary process and laid down procedures of the Armed Forces of Nigeria as well as natural justice,” he said.
NANS checks indicate the army violated its own rules in the ways the officers were disengaged.
The Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers whose paragraph 09.02c (4) was relied upon to remove the officers, originates from the Armed Forces Act. The section cited by the army provides that an officer may be compulsorily retired “on disciplinary grounds i.e. serious offence(s)” without defining what constitutes “serious offences”.
But the principal law – the Armed Forces Act – establishes all actions that constitute offences in the military. The Act prescribes steps to be taken in punishing offenders, and a review shows no section empowers the Army Council to arbitrarily punish or compulsorily retire officers for any offence. In fact, the Army Council, in Section 11(a-f) of the Act, has no power to retire any officer on disciplinary grounds without compliance with the steps prescribed by law.
Mr Mohammed and most of the affected officers were neither queried nor indicted by any panel, but got flushed out for reasons that smack of high-level arbitrariness and witch-hunting by authorities of the army, a reason the victimised officers petitioned the authorities in keeping with the military’s rules to seek redress.
Seeking justice in court
Mr Mohammed filed a suit at the National Industrial Court to reverse his “unlawful and wrongful compulsory retirement from the Nigerian Army without any disciplinary process or procedure.”
On 14 January 2020, the National Industrial Court declared “the retirement” of Mr Mohammed as “wrongful, unconstitutional, illegal, null and void; and ordered my immediate reinstatement with all the rights and privileges.”
The Nigerian Army is however yet to comply with this judgement to date.
In a letter to the Chief of Army Staff, Mr Mohammed noted that “despite the favorable Judgement of the court in 2020 to redress the injustices meted to me, the pattern of abuse that I have been subjected to since 2016 was continued with the deliberate neglect to comply with the Court Judgement which was duly served the Nigerian Army.”
It understands that the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor, made an attempt to revisit the issue in 2021.
In a memo to the former minister which was acknowledged on 7 July 2021, Mr Irabor sought the endorsement of the minister for “voluntary retirement of the 38 senior officers with effect from 1 January 2018.” The appeal was not approved.
Mr Mohammed said he is now appealing to the Commander-in chief Mr Tinubu, current Chief of Defence Staff and Army chief to order his “(1) immediate reinstatement into the Nigerian Army as ordered by the court with effect from 9 June 2016. (2) Full restoration to the current rank and seniority of my course mates (47 RC). and (3) Payment of all my salaries and emoluments from 9 June 2016 till date,” he wrote.
“I am confident in your leadership and steadfastness for justice/rule of law and optimistic that you will grant me full restoration to put my career back on course as I never deserved the ill treatment of over 7 years of compulsory retirement that was meted to me,” the letter read.
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