Soldiers Sentenced for Selling Arms to Terrorists.
A special court-martial of the Nigerian Army in Maiduguri, Borno State, has sentenced three soldiers to life imprisonment and another to 15 years for illegal arms deal conducted in collaboration with police officers and terrorists.
The trial was presided over by Brigadier General Ugochukwu Unachukwu, the acting General Officer Commanding the 7th Division and Commander of Sector 1 of Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK). It took place at the Officers’ Mess of the Theatre Command Headquarters in Maiduguri.
Delivering the judgment, Brigadier General Mohammed Abdullahi, the president of the court-martial, found Raphael Ameh (a sergeant), Ejiga Musa (a sergeant), and Patrick Ocheje (a lance corporal) guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment. Omitoye Rufus (a corporal) received a 15-year jail term.
The soldiers were convicted of various offenses, including theft, unlawful dealing in ammunition, and aiding the enemy, all of which are punishable under the Armed Forces Act.
Ameh, who served as an armor at the 7th Division Garrison, conspired with a deceased colleague to steal ammunition from the division’s armor and collaborated with police officers to conceal weapons in bags of beans, smuggling them to Enugu and Ebonyi for criminals. Bank records linked Ameh to over 100 suspicious transactions between July 2022 and June 2024.
Musa, while serving as the armor of the 195th Battalion, was found to have worked with Ocheje and police officers to sell an AK-47 rifle along with large quantities of ammunition. Records indicated he collected more than ₦500,000 from these transactions before his arrest while trying to sell more ammunition.
Rufus was convicted for selling 40 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition to a police officer. Ocheje, deployed at the forward operating base in Molai, was guilty of diverting ammunition during communal clashes at the behest of a police officer. He also stole an AK-47 rifle belonging to a colleague.
The court stated that their actions directly endangered military operations and national security, amounting to aiding the enemy.
Condemning the convicts, Abdullahi referred to them as “bad eggs” who betrayed the trust, discipline, and honor expected of soldiers in the fight against insurgency. He reiterated the army’s zero-tolerance policy on the sale of arms or ammunition to adversaries “in whatever form or guise.”
