Why court ordered reinstatement of illegally dismissed Nigerian Army officer

The National Industrial Court, on Wednesday, ordered the Nigerian Army to reinstate a senior officer, Mohammed Suleiman, having established that the military authorities broke the law in dismissing him in 2016.

Delivering judgement on Wednesday at the headquarters of the court in Abuja, Sanusi Kado, the judge, said, “The compulsory retirement of the claimant by the Nigerian Army via a letter of Compulsory Retirement in 2016, is Ultra vires, illegal, unlawful, null and void.”

Mr Kado said the defendants failed to act with respect to the law, by not adhering to its own rules and guidelines of employment.

Thus, the judge said that the action of the army in retiring the claimant is unconstitutional, null and void and of no effect.

He ruled that Mr Suleiman, who was arbitrarily punished while holding the rank of colonel, be “reinstated back to the to the army with his benefits and privileges restored.”

The judgement capped off nearly four years of Mr Suleiman’s efforts to get justice, including repeated appeals to President Muhammadu Buhari for redress.

Last year, the court ordered the army to reinstate two officers, also illegally punished – but no compliance yet.

Arbitrary dismissal

Mr Suleiman was one of the 38 officers dismissed by the army in June 2016. The mass sack affected nine major-generals, 11 brigadier-generals, seven colonels and 11 lieutenant-colonels.

In a June 9, 2016, letter to the affected officers, seen by PREMIUM TIMES, their compulsory retirement was hinged on “provisions of Paragraph 09.02c (4) of the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers 2012 (Revised)”.

The referenced section – 09.02c (4) – of the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers 2012 (Revised), shows the officers were laid off “on disciplinary grounds i.e. serious offence(s)”.

Emphasising “service exigencies” and that the “military must remain apolitical and professional at all times”, Sani Usman, spokesperson for the army then, had released a statement, disclosing what could have constituted the “serious offences” which warranted the dismissal of the 38 officers.

“It should be recalled that not too long ago some officers were investigated for being partisan during the 2015 general elections,” Mr Usman said. “Similarly, the investigation by the Presidential Committee investigating Defence Contracts revealed a lot. Some officers have already been arraigned in court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).”

However, investigations by PREMIUM TIMES, involving review of service rules and interviews with officials with direct knowledge of the matter, showed the army violated its own laws by dismissing the majority of the officers.

Contrary to the claim by the army, our investigations showed that only a few of the affected officers were queried, tried and indicted.

Others had their careers abruptly cut short for reasons that smacked of high-level arbitrariness, pettiness, witch-hunting and partisanship by authorities of the army.

While officers cleared by either arms procurement panel or election panel were retired, others who were not questioned at all were also sent away.

Mr Suleiman was one such officers neither queried nor indicted for any offence before being forced out of service.

The Harmonized Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers whose paragraph 09.02c (4) was relied upon to remove the officers, originates from the Armed Forces Act.

The section cited by the army provides that an officer may be compulsorily retired “on disciplinary grounds i.e. serious offence(s)” without defining what constitutes “serious offences”.

But the principal law – the Armed Forces Act – establishes all actions that constitute offences in the Military.

The Act prescribes steps to be taken in punishing offences, and a review shows no section empowers the Army Council to arbitrarily punish or compulsorily retire officers for any offence.

In fact, the Army Council, in Section 11(a-f) of the Act, has no power to retire any officer on disciplinary ground without compliance with the steps prescribed by law.

The judge, Mr Kado, affirmed this in his judgement.

“The defendant has not proved anything that would warrant the dismissal of the claimant,” he held.

Appeals to the commander-in-chief

The judgement on Tuesday capped nearly four years of efforts by Mr Suleiman to get justice, including repeated appeals for redress to Mr Buhari as the law provides.

Paragraph 09.02(e) of the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers, 2012 (revised) – provides that any officer compulsorily retired or dismissed can appeal to the president through the Chief of Defence Staff within 30 days.

Our investigation revealed that 22 of the affected officers exploited this window, and had their petitions conveyed to the president by the Chief of Defence Staff, Gabriel Olonisakin, via a July 2016 letter referenced CDS/6/1/A.

After that joint appeal, one of them, Mr Suleiman, who won his case on Wednesday, had four times written the presidency seeking justice and once in September 2018 challenged Mr Buhari to prove his integrity.

“Mr President, you have put out a reputation of being a man of justice, dignity and integrity but you are yet to prove it to all Nigerians in the case of these 38 innocent Army officers,” wrote Mr Suleimanthrough his lawyer, Adeyinka Adedeji. “In the past two years, grave injustice has been meted to (them), and in spite of repeated passionate letter(s) of redress to you as their Commander-in-Chief, you have been curiously silent.”

Mr Buhari has never responded, nor acknowledged any of the petitions to him.

One of the affected officers, Ojebo Baba-Ochankpa, died while waiting for justice in January 2017.

Earlier Judgements Against The Army

Mr Suleiman’s victory at the court on Wednesday is the fifth of such development since the arbitrarily dismissed officers commenced efforts to get justice.

Before Wednesday’s judgement in Mr Suleiman’s case, the industrial court had previously asked the army to reinstate four other affected officers.

Last year, Nwokoro Ijeoma, a major-general, and Danladi Hassan, a colonel, separately won their cases against the army.

On January 14 and 16 this year, the court also ordered the army to reinstate two other officers, Abdulfatai Mohammed and Thomas Arigbe, both lieutenant-colonels.

However, the army is yet to comply with the verdicts of the court. It is not clear if the authorities have appealed the judgements.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately reach the spokesperson for the army, Sagir Musa, as his known phone line was switched off.

Mr Sagir had previously, when Mr Mohammed won his case in January, told PREMIUM TIMES that it’s a legal issue and no comment could be extracted from him.

Speaking after the judgement at the industrial court, Mr Suleiman’s lawyer, Ms Adedeji, thanked the court for doing justice to the case of his client.

Ms Adedeji expressed optimism that the Nigerian Army Council as a creation of the law would respect and obey the judgment.