How army officer convicted of sodomy avoided jail, got pardon, landed top university jobs

When a court convicts individuals for offences and sentences them to prison as punishment, it is expected that they immediately serve their time in jail.

But in his case, as this PREMIUM TIMES investigation found, Bello Magaji, a former military officer, never served his five-year prison sentence for sodomy imposed by the General Court Martial (GCM), a conviction later upheld by the Supreme Court.

Instead, former President Goodluck Jonathan granted him a presidential pardon many years after the conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court. The Nigerian Army also changed his dismissal record to voluntary resignation, gave him a certificate of military service, and restored to him all entitlements for retired military officers.

Mr Magaji went ahead to further his education, secure teaching jobs in higher institutions in Nigeria and Uganda, and only last year became the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa State. The university, where he serves as an associate professor and recently the Dean of Faculty of Law, said it was not aware of the conviction and is looking into it.

But Mr Magaji continues to maintain his innocence in the conviction. Since the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence, nothing could be done to reverse them; therefore, he grasped at opportunities offered by various avenues to blunt retribution.

He pursued the case through Nigeria’s court hierarchies – from the General Court Martial, the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court – the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission (HRVIC) popularly known as the Oputa Panel set up in 1999 by then-President Olusegun Obasanjo upon Nigeria’s transition to civil rule.

Although the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence for the offence of sodomy, he never served the five-year sentence.

“At no point did I serve any sentence pursuant to a conviction by a General Court Martial in 1997,” Mr Magaji told PREMIUM TIMES. “What occurred was an initial military detention at the Officers’ Mess, after which a stay of execution of the court martial proceedings was granted. I was subsequently released and continued to challenge the matter through all available legal and constitutional avenues.”

A professor of law at the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, Momoh-Jimoh Umaru, told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview that Mr Magaji ought to have served the five-year jail sentence after the Supreme Court’s ruling before the presidential pardon that came five years later.

Mr Umaru said the fact that he remained out of prison for years after the Supreme Court affirmed the sentence highlights a major weakness in the administration and enforcement of criminal justice, and how it can be exploited.

He noted that many members of the public may view such situations as evidence that influential individuals can evade punishment, whereas the reality often lies in the workings of the legal and judicial processes themselves.

“It’s the justice system that gives the leeway for him to work around as if he is a free man, but he is not a free man, because the conviction is still hanging on his neck,” he told our reporter via telephone.

But with the presidential pardon, Mr Umaru said, “There’s no way he can be asked to go and serve because there’s already a presidential pardon.”

On responsibility for enforcing prison sentences, Mr Umaru explained that where a convicted person is already in custody, correctional officials are expected to return the person to prison following the court’s decision.

In many instances, prosecution agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have taken charge of apprehending and sending a convict to prison as ordered by court. Recently, the agency tracked down former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, who was convicted and jailed for 75 years in absentia, and sent him to prison to serve his jail time. If EFCC’s action is the standard, then, the Nigerian military authorities which successfully prosecuted him was responsible for ensuring that he went to jail on the terms of his sentence.

Magaji’s act

In 1996, Mr Magaji, then a military police officer in the Nigerian Army, was accused of sexual offences against four men, including a 17-year-old, according to court documents reviewed by this newspaper. Though he was not charged with rape, two victims and one witness testified that he intoxicated them with alcohol before having carnal knowledge of them.

The military charged him with sodomy, and the General Court-Martial (GMC) on 6 February 1997 found him guilty and convicted him to seven years’ imprisonment, later reduced to five years.

According to the court documents, Mr Magaji committed the offence luring the four young boys with a false promise of employment.

In his pre-trial statement, Mr Magaji admitted to what the Supreme Court described as a “naked romance” with the boys, adding that they massaged him, including his private parts while they were naked, but pleaded not guilty to the act of sodomy.

“… I had some passes with them short of sexual intercourse,” he wrote, adding “…they massaged me. I have to state that on the day in question the massage they did to me included my private parts and I had romances with them. We were naked.”

At the time, he was married with two wives and seven children. He blamed his actions on “psychological and psychiatric problems”, which he said began two years before the date of the act that led to his trial and conviction.

During the trial before the General Court Martial, he chose not to testify or call any witnesses in his defence and rested his case entirely on the evidence presented by the prosecution.

Lost appeals

However, he rejected the ruling after the GCM convicted him. He first appealed to the Armed Forces Disciplinary Appeal Committee (AFDAC) and later to the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, according to a petition he wrote to the Human Rights Violations Investigation Commission, also known as Oputa Panel, in July 1999.

The appellate court dismissed the appeal on 30 June 2004.

Still dissatisfied, he approached the Supreme Court, where the matter was heard on 13 December 2007.

In its ruling on 7 March 2008, the five justices of the Supreme Court led by Justice Niki Tobi unanimously dismissed the appeal for lacking merit.

One of the judges, Ikechi Ogbuagu, was so furious in his contributory opinion that he said the initial sentence of five years was, in fact, insufficient.

Justice Ogbuagu said Mr Magaji’s request for reinstatement and payment of entitlements is “evidence” that he has no remorse for “his shameful and condemnable acts against these young boys who were given the impression that they were going to be employed for work from where they will earn some income.”

“Speaking for myself, since there is an appeal against (the) sentence, I should have increased/enhanced the term,” Justice Ogbuagu said in his ruling, of the four contributions supporting the lead judgement delivered by Justice Tobi.

“It is my humble and firm view that the Appellant deserves to be put away from society and to be in prison custody in a secluded and single cell for a very long time, where his alleged problem will be taken care of by a Psychiatric Doctor.”

The judge expressed concern that Mr Magaji was himself a lawyer. The former army officer had obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) from the Usmanu Dan Fodio University, Sokoto, in 1989, and was called to the Bar in 1990 after graduating from the Nigerian Law School, Lagos.

Petition to Oputa panel

Meanwhile, Mr Magaji, a former military police officer, insisted that the trial and conviction were a setup for his involvement in the prosecution of some military officers.

In his petition to the Oputa Panel, Mr Magaji accused the military of victimisation, unlawful arrest, inhuman treatment while in detention, torture of him and his children and denial of justice.

He said his troubles began after he refused to dance to the tune of then Commander of the Lagos Garrison Command (now 81 Division Garrison), Patrick Aziza, then a brigadier general, to compromise the prosecution of some officers. Mr Aziza convened the court martial that convicted Mr Magaji.

Mr Magaji said Mr Aziza had sent an unnamed officer to him, seeking his cooperation to weaken the case of some officers accused of illegally importing vehicles from Liberia, after the then Chief of Army Staff, Ishaya Bamaiyi, a major general, appointed him to prosecute the case.

He said he had also been approached by one Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed to compromise a case where he served as Judge Advocate in the trial of some defence intelligence officers accused of aiding the escape of a drug baron in 1994, but he refused.

Mr Magaji also claimed that in December 1996, while serving as National Chairman and Acting Legal Officer of the defunct Task Force on Telecommunications and Postal Offences, he resisted another attempt by Frank Omenka, a lieutenant colonel, to interfere in the investigation of an alleged N4.5 million forged cheque used to settle a NITEL bill.

PREMIUM TIMES cannot independently confirm the compromise allegations levelled against the named individuals.

But Mr Magaji maintained that his refusal to be influenced in these matters earned him powerful enemies within the military hierarchy, who later orchestrated allegations of sexual offences against him.

In his many appeals, including at the courts, he alleged that the court martial denied him a fair hearing and that the proceedings were riddled with irregularities. The Supreme Court dismissed these allegations in its judgement, the final judicial decision on the case.

From cashiering to voluntary retirement

Mr Magaji first found respite in 2013 when the then-President Goodluck Jonathan granted him a presidential pardon alongside other convicted military officers and former Bayelsa State Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was convicted of corruption based on a plea bargain. Their pardon met heavy criticism from the Nigerian public. In an editorial, The Nation newspaper described it as a “Presidential Jailbreak”.

In 2015, the Nigerian military also restored all of Mr Magaji’s honours, including his rank, pension and all honours granted retired military officers. The then-Chief of Army Staff, Tukur Buratai, a major general, gave him a certificate of military service.

The Army Headquarters also changed his disengagement status in its records from “cashiering” to “voluntary retirement”, effective from 6 February 1997, the date of his initial conviction. Cashiering is used for military officers dismissed from service in disgrace as a punishment for a serious disciplinary offence that strips them of their rank and all service benefits.

“On behalf of the commander-in-chief, the army council and the Nigerian Army in particular, the Chief of Army Staff wishes to express his profound appreciation and gratitude to you for your dedication and unblemished years of military service to the Nigerian Army and the Nation in general,” reads a November 2015 letter, seen by this newspaper, reinstating Mr Magaji.

“During your 19 years and 28 days of service, you demonstrated good conduct in the discharge of your duties. You are authorised to retain your substantive rank of Major. You are entitled to gratuity, pension, certificate of military service and retired officer’s identity card.”

Post-conviction sojourn

Mr Magaji told PREMIUM TIMES that he never served the prescribed jail term because he appealed and challenged the ruling until he got a presidential pardon. Legal experts say he should have served the sentence between 2008 and 2013 when he got the presidential pardon. But he didn’t.

He subsequently enrolled and obtained a Master of Laws (LL.M) degree from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 2008 and a Doctorate degree in Law (PhD) from the same university in 2017.

In his profile on the website of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), his current employer, Mr Magaji said his career began at the Federal Polytechnic, Kaduna, where he taught law for 15 years and rose from Lecturer III to Senior Law Lecturer, before proceeding to the Nigeria Police Academy, Wudil, Kano, as Law Lecturer and a pioneer Examination Officer for the faculty.

He has also taught at the Kampala International University, visiting Law Lecturer at Nkumba University, Entebbe, and the Islamic University in Uganda (IUIU), all in Uganda.

At IUIU, he was Dean of the Faculty of Law before returning to Nigeria to join AUN.

Late last year, the AUN appointed him the Dean of Faculty of Law.

In his profile on the AUN website, Mr Magaji said nothing about his military background.

Shades of opinions

Mr Magaji’s suitability for roles in an academic institution has drawn different shades of opinions.

Emmanuel Okorie, a legal officer with Hope Behind Bars, a non-profit that provides free legal representation to indigent pre-trial detainees, said there is no legal basis to prevent a former convict from holding an academic leadership position after serving their sentence.

Mr Okorie said once a person has completed their punishment under the law, they should not continue to face discrimination solely because of a past conviction.

“After serving his time, he is seen as a free man,” he said, although Mr Magaji never served the jail time imposed on him by the General Court Martial and affirmed by the Supreme Court.

“It does not stop him from going to academics. If it was a problem, he wouldn’t have gotten the job in the first place. He got the job going through the process, and at this point, nothing stops him from becoming the dean.”

Mr Okorie maintained that there is currently no known legal restriction preventing Mr Magaji from being appointed dean.

He added that modern correctional and criminal justice principles encourage the reintegration and rehabilitation of ex-convicts into society, rather than permanently excluding them from opportunities for advancement.

According to him, society should encourage reformed individuals who have rebuilt their lives and contributed positively to their professions, instead of continuing to stigmatise them after they have served their punishment.

Professor of Law, Mr Umaru, also said the eligibility of an ex-convict for employment or appointment in a university depends largely on the institution’s conditions of service.

He said the conditions of service at Nigerian federal universities do not prohibit an ex-convict from holding such a position.

According to him, if the university has no rule barring the employment of ex-convicts, then there is no legal basis to prevent such a person from holding academic or administrative positions.

“I see no reason why there should be any condition preventing him from rising to whatever rank,” he said.

“I know people will be arguing on the grounds of morality. But morality is not the same thing as law. So, I see no reason why he cannot be allowed to be the dean.”

But the professor of teacher education, who preferred to speak anonymously, insisted that the appointment happened because private institutions operate at the discretion of their owners, unlike public universities where appointments and leadership positions are guided by established procedures, elections, and regulations.

The professor, a former chapter president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at a federal university, said such practices would be difficult to sustain in public institutions because academic staff and unions would challenge such decisions.

READ ALSO: Nigerian Army rotates more soldiers fighting Boko Haram – Official

He also explained that in public universities, positions such as dean or head of department are typically elective and subject to scrutiny by academic peers, whereas private institutions have wider powers to appoint individuals without the same level of accountability.

Magaji, AUN speak on appointment

The American University of Nigeria initially told PREMIUM TIMES that it conducted its due diligence before hiring Mr Magaji and noted he wasn’t the same individual as convicted. The university registrar, Daniel Okereke, told our reporter via telephone that it was “a very ugly coincidence of name”.

This newspaper later informed the university that our findings showed it was the same person. Mr Okereke said the university was taking a closer look at the matter and will take a decision.

Mr Magaji told PREMIUM TIMES that he wasn’t mandated, under Nigerian labour law, to volunteer information about the conviction to his employers when it was not asked, especially as he had received a presidential pardon.

“Conversely, employers bear the responsibility for conducting due diligence, including background checks, prior to engagement,” he said. “This is why standard processes require referees and verifiable records, all of which I duly provided. At no time was there any misrepresentation or concealment on my part.”

“As for your question regarding my appointment (dean of law faculty), I have conducted myself with integrity throughout my academic and professional career, and I remain confident that the full and accurate record will speak for itself,” Mr Magaji added.