Military Promotes Officers, Commutes Death Sentences Of 66

NINETY-seven military officers and 5, 198 other ranks, were yesterday promoted to their next levels by the 7 Division of the Nigerian Army for “hard work and gallantry” in the fight against Boko Haram insurgency.

This was just as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, has commuted the death sentences earlier passed on 66 soldiers for mutiny and other offences to 10 years imprisonment.

Speaking while decorating the promoted military officers and soldiers on Saturday, at the Maimalari Cantonment, Maiduguri; the General Officer Commanding (GOC), of the Division, Maj-Gen. Lamidi Adeosun, explained that the beneficiaries of the promotion were found worthy of being elevated to their next ranks in the Nigerian Army.

He added that the gesture is also in recognition of the gallantry the soldiers exhibited in the battlefield to end the Boko Haram insurgency in the northeastern part of the country.

“The Division is privileged to have a total of 97 officers elevated from one rank to the other. This goes to show that God Almighty rewards hard work; the Chief of Army Staff
recognises hard work and also rewards hard work.”

On the reduction of death penalty against the 66 mutineers, the Army noted that beside the public outcry, the decision was arrived at following recommendations from results of legal reviews.

In a statement signed by the acting Director Army Public Relations (ag.DAPR), Colonel Sani Usman, the military explained that following “series of petitions, the Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai,  ordered a legal review of the cases. The directive was carried out to examine the merit of each case.

“It was on the basis of the review and recommendations that the Chief of Army Staff commuted the death sentences of the 66 soldiers to 10 years jail term. The sentences are to run concurrently.”