Army General Jailed Seven Years

A Nigerian Army special court martial sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, convicted a former Group Managing Director, Nigerian Army Properties Limited, Maj. Gen. Umaru Mohammed, of corruption and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment

The military court also ordered Mohammed to pay back $2,178,900 (When converted to naira (at N1000 per dollar), $2.1m equaled N2.1bn. The total amount when added to N1.6bn was N3.7bn) and N1.65bn to the Army properties and NAPL.

Mohammed was tried on 18 counts bordering on forgery, misappropriation of funds, and conspiracy, among others.

Although he pleaded not guilty to all the allegations the court martial found him guilty of 14 counts.

Delivering judgment on Tuesday, the eight-man panel, led Maj. Gen. James Myam, sentenced Mohammed to five years’ imprisonment on count one and ordered him to return a total sum of $1,045,400.000 to the Nigerian Army Properties Limited.

He was also found guilty on count two, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and ordered $480,000 to NAPL.

On count three, the General was also found guilty, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and ordered to refund $85,400 to the NAPL.

He was similarly found guilty on counts four, five, six and nine, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for each and ordered to refund $35,300, $55,500, $46,500 and $430,800, respectively.

The military court said the sentences would run concurrently and were subject to the confirmation of the authorities.

Moving an oral application, the counsel for the convicted ex-MDNAPL, Lekan Ojo (SAN), citing Section 157 of the Armed Forces Act, prayed the court to move his client to a custodial centre.

He said, “The sentence of the court martial begins to run the day it is pronounced. I hereby pray the court to move him to the correctional centre and not the Army detention facility.”

The court, however, turned down the application.