Chairman of the Senate Committee on Defence, Senator Thompson Sekibo has said that members of the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly will not plead for reversal of the judgment passed on the 12 soldiers for mutiny by a military court.
Senator Sekibo, who addressed newsmen after a closed-door meeting between the senate committee on Defence and the Service Chiefs at the National Assembly in Abuja yesterday, said the judgment of the military court would serve as a lesson to other officers.
“No we are not, because the Armed Forces are established by an Act of the National Assembly. The Act spelt out categorically the conduct of the soldiers and the way they are to behave wherever they are. If you join the military, that Act is to guide you and your conduct.
“If you go contrary to any of the prescribed sections of the Act, the punishment prescribed for the Act you violated will come on you. So the military did not just wake up one day and say that they are going to kill Mr. A or Mr. B.
“They went through the necessary processes and they found them guilty. But I think that those found guilty also have a way out. They can go on appeal and if the appeal finds them not guilty that will be it. But for what the military have done, they have done the best thing; because you must instill discipline in the Armed Forces. If you don’t do so, one day all of us here will be sacked and you will not hear of this place”, he said.
Comments