Convicted Soldiers Should Be Forgiven Like Repentant Boko Haram Members – Femi Falana

Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) has come out to urge Mohammadu Buhari to pardon 70 soldiers convicted for mutiny during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

He recently revealed that the pardon given to repentant Boko Haram members be extended to the soldiers, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, in the course of defending the country, the troops demanded for arms and armament from the military authorities but they were punished, so they deserve to be forgiven.

He added that it is unfair that the soldiers were accused of sabotaging the counter insurgency operations of the Federal Government.

His words, “Instead of attending to such legitimate demand, the military authorities accused scores of the soldiers of sabotaging the counter insurgency operations of the Federal Government and proceeded to set up courts-martial to try them for mutiny.”

“We defended 58 soldiers while the remaining 12 were defended by other colleagues before the Courts-Martial which sat in Abuja. At the end of the trials in August and December 2014, the Courts-Martial jailed some of the soldiers and sentenced 70 others to death for mutiny.”

“Notwithstanding the pendency of the appeal at the apex court we urge Your Excellency to exercise your prerogative of mercy in favour of the entire 70 convicted soldiers.”

“It is public knowledge that the Federal Government and some state governments have recently granted pardon and rehabilitated hundreds of terrorists who had waged war against Nigeria and subjected unarmed citizens to egregious human rights abuse.”

“The soldiers who were convicted of mutiny for demanding for weapons to fight such terrorist deserve to be granted pardon and rehabilitated by the Federal Government.”