The Special Military Court Martial constituted by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai to try two Major Generals for misconduct unbecoming of senior officers of the Nigerian Army, has demoted Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Sani, former Chief of Transformation and Innovation Centre (ARTIC), to a Brigadier-General.
The President of the court, AVM James Gbum announced the demotion of General Sani after he convicted him on a five-count charge bordering on cheating the service.
Major General Sani had been on trial in the court since 2016 at the Garrison headquarters, Mogadishu Cantonment, Abuja after he was accused of dividing and allocating part of army land to himself.
AVM Gbum also ordered the convict to return N23 million being the money he got after he sold part of the army land to himself.
The court held that the convict fraudulently allocated to himself part of the land – 436 hectares, in Abuja and sold it.
The court president also held that Sani went beyond the mandate given to him by the army authorities which was “only to collect the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)’’ from relevant FCT Agency.
He said that the convict divided the land into two and allocated one part to himself, using Pseudo Company in which he was the sole signatory.
Gbum said the convict sold portions of the land to three different people at N10 million, N7 million and N6 million, respectively.
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The court president, however, said that the conviction and sentence were subject to the confirmation of the Army Council.
Counsel to Major General Sani, Mr Paul Sule (SAN), said that he would appeal to the army council to quash the sentence.
Sule, however, said that should the council refuse to quash the sentence; he would approach the Court of Appeal to do that.Â
Recall that Army authorities on Thursday May 4th 2016 inaugurated a special court martial at the Army Headquarters Garrison, Mogadishu cantonment to commence the trial of two major generals.
The court martial convened at the instance of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lt General Buratai sat on the trial of Major General Patrick Falola and Major General Ibrahim Sani.
The panel include: Air Vice Marshal James Gbum who is President of the Court, while Air Vice Marshal Iya Abdullahi and Rear Admiral Peter Agba.
Other panel members were Surgeon Rear Admiral Edwin Enechukwu, a waiting member and Colonel Sa’ad Musa was Judge Advocate.
Although, the offences were not read in court, according to sources the accused are said to be facing charges that borders on conduct unbecoming of military officers punishable under the Armed Forces Act.
The court had earlier dispensed with the case of Major General Patrick Faloloa who was Commander, Armed Forces Hospital Kano and one time Commander 68 Army Reference hospital Yaba, Lagos. He was given appropriate punishment.
