Court of Appeal stops army from retiring General Sani

A three-member panel of justices led by Justice Datti Yahaya on Tuesday directed the Nigerian Army not to retire the applicant until the determination of the suit before the court. “He has not reached the age of retirement. You demoted him from Major General to Brigadier General. Don’t retire him yet. Allow us to determine the matter first, ” he said. The advice of the court followed the motion for stay filed by Sani through his counsel, Paul Sule challenging the decision of the Special Court Martial set up by the Chief of Army Staff, which on July 20 convicted him and was purportedly affirmed by the Army Council on November 4. At the resumed hearing, Sule informed the court that he has filed two motions, one of them dated December 4, 2017, seeking leave to enable the applicant appeal against the judgement of the Special Court Martial and another dated December 6, 2017, seeking to stay the execution of the judgement of the court-martial. Justice Yahaya struck out the application after it was withdrawn by the applicant’s lawyer. The judge fixed January 17 for ruling on the application for stay of execution dated December 6, 2017. The suit is an appeal against the ruling of the court-martial and two letters from the headquarters of the Nigerian Army, Ministry of Defence with Reference number: AHQ DOAA/GI/300/197 dated 17 November and signed by Major General F.O. Agugo titled: ‘Third Army Council Decision for Implementation Maj Gen I Sani (N/7361)’. There was also another letter signed by Brig. General F. Yahaya, the Acting Military Secretary headquarters for the Nigerian Army with reference number: AHQ MS/GI/226 dated November 23, 2017, captioned: ‘Notification of Retirement: Age Ceiling on Rank Brigadier General Ibrahim Sani (N/7361).’ Both letters had advised the applicant to “apply for voluntary retirement on the ground of Age Ceiling on rank pursuant to paragraph 02.10 (B) of Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service (HTACOS) for officers 2012 (Revised).]]>