Court Discharges Army Sergeant of Death Penalty Imposed By Military Court

The Supreme Court has discharged and acquitted an Army Sergeant, Akawu Bala, of the death sentence imposed on him by the General Court Martial of the Nigerian Army.

The respite came the way of the embattled Army Sergeant after spending 12 years in Kaduna prison waiting for ratification of the death sentence passed on him. Delivering judgement in an appeal he lodged at the Supreme Court on March 16, 2017, a 5-man panel of Justices of the apex court unanimously discharged him from the death penalty.

Sergeant Bala was accused by the Nigerian Army of shooting one, Isa Mohammed, on December 9, 2012 when he was attached to African Petroleum Station at Sabon Tasha, Kaduna with an AK47 rifle.

The victim of the gunshot was said to have died on December 10, 2012 at Saint Gerald’s Catholic Hospital in Kaduna.

Following his indictment, he was put on trial for murder charge punishable under Section 106 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 before the General Court Martial on a 2-count charge. He was later found guilty of the murder charge and was subsequently sentenced to death by hanging.

However, on February 17, 2017, his appeal against the death sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeal, Kaduna Division, on the ground that the charge sheet upon which he was tried and convicted was not signed by a General Commanding Officer as required by law.

Justice Obietonbara Daniel Kalo who read the Court of Appeal’s lead judgement declared the process of the trial and conviction of the Sergeant as a nullity, but however refused to discharge him from the nullified trial, prompting further appeal to Supreme Court.

His lead Counsel, Mr Reuben Okpanachi Atabo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), had argued on behalf of the convict that having declared the trial of his client a nullity, the Court of Appeal ought to have made a consequential order to discharge the accused person from the flawed trial. The senior lawyer drew the attention of the apex court to Section 193 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 which prohibited retrial of any military personnel after his trial has been voided and set aside.

However, the Nigerian Army through its lead counsel, Isaac Udoka, vehemently objected to the arguments of the appellant’s lawyer and prayed that the apex court should order the retrial of the convict in the interest of justice. In the Supreme Court’s judgement on the appeal marked SC/889/2017, Justice Helen Morenikeji Ogunwumiju agreed with Atabo SAN that the Court of Appeal ought to have discharged the accused person having voided his trial and declared it a nullity.

Justice Ogunwumiju subsequently invoked Section 193 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 and set the convict free, adding that the ordinary meaning of Section 193 of the Armed Forces Act 2014 is that the accused person can no longer stand another trial. The apex court while rejecting the arguments of the Army’s lawyer, thereafter ordered immediate release of the convict from Kaduna prison where he had been on remand since 2012.

Apart from Justice Ogunwumiju, other Justices on the panel are; Uwani Musa Abba Aji, Chidiebere Nwaoma Uwa, Stephen Jonah Ada and Abubakar Sadiq Umar.

Prior to his trial, Sergeant Bala, had in his defence, claimed that he fired gun shot at Isa Mohammed and one other person when they were walking towards him in the dark at the African Petroleum Station. He claimed that his order on them to go back was rebuffed prompting him to fire at them before they could capture him The convict further claimed that he fired the gun at the two men because the incidence happened during the peak of Boko Haram activity in Kaduna State.