End Of The Road For Soldiers Who Sold Arms To Terrorists

It is a literal end of the road for 3 soldiers who allegedly sold arms to terrorists, as a special court martial has duly sentenced them.

The special court martial of the Nigerian Army which sat in Maiduguri, Borno State, sentenced 3soldiers to life imprisonment and another 1 to 15 years.

They were indicted for illegal arms dealing in connivance with police officers and terrorists.

The trial, presided over by Brigadier General Ugochukwu Unachukwu, acting General Officer Commanding 7 Division and Commander of Sector 1, Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK), took place at the Officers’ Mess of the Theatre Command Headquarters in Maiduguri.

Delivering judgment, Brigadier General Mohammed Abdullahi, president of the court martial, pronounced Raphael Ameh, a sergeant; Ejiga Musa, a sergeant; and Patrick Ocheje, a lance corporal, guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

Omitoye Rufus, a corporal, got a lesser sentence of a 15-year jail term, in the case which heard how the soldiers committed offences covering theft, unlawful arms dealing and aiding the enemy, all punishable under the Armed Forces Act.

For example, Ameh, who served as an armourer at the 7 Division Garrison, was found to have conspired with a deceased colleague to steal ammunition from the division’s armoury.

He worked with police officers to conceal weapons in bags of beans and smuggle them to Enugu and Ebonyi for criminals.

Abdullahi revealed that bank records linked Ameh to over 100 suspicious transactions between July 2022 and June 2024.

Musa, while serving as armourer of 195 Battalion, was discovered to have collaborated with Ocheje and police officers in selling an AK-47 rifle and large quantities of ammunition.

Records showed he collected more than ₦500,000 from the transactions before he was arrested while attempting to sell more ammunition.

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Rufus was convicted for selling 40 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition to a police officer, while Ocheje, who was deployed at the forward operating base in Molai, was found guilty of diverting ammunition during communal clashes at the instigation of a police officer.

He also stole an AK-47 rifle belonging to a colleague.

The court held that the actions of these men who sold arms to terrorists directly endangered military operations and national security, amounting to aiding the enemy.

Abdullahi described the convicts as “bad eggs” who betrayed the trust, discipline, and honour expected of soldiers in the fight against insurgency.