SPN CONDEMNS THE DEATH SENTENCE ON 12 SOLDIERS
Press Statement
The Socialist
Party of Nigeria (SPN) condemns the death sentence on 12 soldiers by the Brig.
Gen. CC Okonkwo led nine-man General Court Martial. It is the height of crudity
and insensitivity for the affected soldiers to be sentenced to death for
protesting against a command that sent them to the warfront in the face of huge
numbers of avoidable deaths of soldiers, poor working condition and absence of
effective logistics and weaponry. This is likened to Adolf Hitler’s army!
It will
be recalled that these soldiers protested on 14 of May 2014 at Maimalari
Cantonment, Maiduguri when the General
Officer Commanding 7 Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammed ordered soldiers to
embark on a journey to fight Boko Haram with inadequate fire power, inadequate
logistical support, no broad fighting plan as well as poor working/fighting
conditions. These soldiers were further infuriated on sighting the body bags of
tens of soldiers killed by Boko Haram fighters with superior firearms in Chibok
that were being brought back to the barracks almost at the same time they were
ordered to embark on another suicide mission.
The SPN do
not support indiscipline including harassment of civilians by the military or police. However, soldiers like every other professional have
a mind of their own and have a right to protest against unpalatable
working/fighting conditions. Soldiers are no robots/zombies and should be
treated with decency! Hence, the Military High Command should stop using the
rank and file military personnel as cannon fodder. We also demand trade union
rights to all military and police personnel to enable them defend their common
interest.
We
recall that a similar fate befell 27 soldiers out of hundreds of soldiers who
protested the stealing of their money on July 4, 2008 in Akure, Ondo State and
were handed life sentences by the nine-man General Court Martial led by
Brigadier-General IshayaBauka. These soldiers participated in the United
Nations Peace Keeping for 6 months and were to earn $1228 monthly and a total
allowance of $7368 but were paid $3000 by the Nigeria Military. In a
face-saving tactics, the military authority demoted the 4 senior military
officers who allegedly stole the money by one rank! Under public pressure and
criticism, the military commuted the life sentence to 7 years imprisonment.
No
doubt, the morale of the rank and file military officers is low due to a number
of reasons such as inadequate weapons to fight with, little or no logistical
support, poor knowledge of the terrain, poor living and fighting condition,
unjustified increasing wealth and privileges of the top military officers etc.
SPN expects that the Nigeria Military should have
addressed the complaints of the soldiers and not condemning them to death.
The
smuggling of $9.3m into South Africa has shown clearly that the Nigeria top
military officers and the ruling elite are busy chasing arms deal, siphoning
and laundering money meant for development abroad while ill motivated soldiers
are daily forced into suicide missions and the vast majority of the working
masses are condemned to hopelessness and more poverty.
The SPN
strongly feels that fighting insecurity and insurgency in an atmosphere of
hopelessness, growing poverty, poor infrastructure, demoralization without
addressing the root cause amounts to fighting the symptoms. The crisis of
insecurity is a product of the unjust capitalist system that breeds inequality,
corruption, poverty and misery. Hence, it is not possible to sustainably fight
crime and insecurity without resolving the socio-economic and political
inequality.
SPN has
canvassed for a well-organized, adequately funded and democratically controlled
community policing/response to insurgency and crime as the most effective way
of fighting crime. This community response should be under the control of
elected representatives of workers and community residents and must unite the
people of all religion, tribes and ethnicity in order to prevent sectarianism
and divisions amongst these communities.
We call
on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to
spearhead a struggle to free the 12 soldiers. SPN hereby demands the immediate
and unconditional freedom and reinstatement of the affected soldiers.
ChineduBosah
National
Secretary
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