Thompson Sekibo has said that members of the Senate will
not be intervening on the death verdict handed to 12
soldiers for mutiny by a military court on September 16th.
Senator Sekibo who spoke with journalists after a closed-
door meeting between the senate committee on Defence
and the Service Chiefs at the National Assembly in Abuja
yesterday September 23rd, said the verdict of the military
court is meant to instill discipline into the military.
"No we are not, because the Armed Forces are established
by an Act of the National Assembly. The Act spelt out
categorically the conduct of the soldiers and the way they
are to behave wherever they are. If you join the military,
that Act is to guide you and your conduct. If you go
contrary to any of the prescribed sections of the Act the
punishment prescribed for the Act you violated will come
on you. So the military did not just wake up one day and
say that they are going to kill Mr. A or Mr. B."
They went through the necessary processes and they
found them guilty. But I think that those found guilty also
have a way out. They can go on appeal and if the appeal
finds them not guilty that will be it. But for what the
military has done, they have done the best thing; because
you must instill discipline in the Armed Forces. If you don't
do so, one day all of us here will be sacked and you will
not hear of this place," he said.
Meanwhile the Nigerian Labor Congress has condemned the
death sentence. Speaking through the Acting President of the
Union, Promise Adewusi, the NLC described the verdict as
unacceptable and advised that the verdict be converted to a
more tolerable and acceptable one
"We expect that the Military Council or the appropriate
authority, whose responsibility it is to review sentences of
this nature, should commute this sentence to a more
tolerable or acceptable one.".
He said the sentence to death verdict handed to the soldiers
if carried out could sow the seed of a major security
problem in the armed forces.
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