A special court-martial of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, Borno State, has sentenced three soldiers to life imprisonment and another to 15 years for illegal arms deals carried out in connivance with police officers and terrorists.
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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, was however handed a 15-year jail term.
The soldiers were convicted of offences ranging from theft and unlawful dealing in ammunition to aiding the enemy, all punishable under the Armed Forces Act.
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.
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 their actions directly endangered military operations and national security, amounting to aiding the enemy.
Condemning the convicts, Abdullahi described them as “bad eggs” who betrayed the trust, discipline, and honour expected of soldiers in the fight against insurgency.
He restated the army’s zero-tolerance stance on the sale of arms or ammunition to adversaries “in whatever form or guise.”
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