The general court-martial sitting in Abuja has struck out the charge of cowardly behaviour brought against Brigadier General Enitan Ransome-Kuti, a former commander of the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF).
Brigadier General Enitan Ransome-Kuti
The Punch reports that Ransome-Kuti’s trial will continue as he has two other charges still pending against him. Ransome-Kuti has been charged for failure to perform military duties and miscellaneous offences relating to loss of the army’s armaments.
The senior army officer was arraigned before the court along with others in June 2015. He was accused of cowardly abandoning his post, neglecting his duties, and failing to account for the army’s armaments in his custody during and after the Boko Haram attack in Baga, Borno state, on January 3, 2015.
According to the army authorities, the armaments he allegedly could not account for comprised three multipurpose light-armoured towing vehicles, three rocket-propelled grenade launchers, two pan herd, three Sagie, one VBL amoured vehicle, eight general purpose machine guns, eight browning machine guns, two trucks, 12 Hilux vehicles and large quantity of ammunition.
It was reported that the prosecution called three witnesses after the accused was arraigned.
The court, which was led by Major General O.E. Ekanem, was said to have struck out the charge against Ransome-Kuti following a no-case submission application filed by the accused through his lawyers Femi Falana and Femi Oyebanji.
However, the court was said to have upheld the argument of the lawyers only with respect to their objection to the charge of cowardice.
The defence counsels insisted that the evidence of the first prosecution witness was incoherent. They also maintained that from the evidence adduced by the prosecution, it was clear that Ransome-Kuti never abandoned the MNJTF in Baga.
The lawyers noted that in the situation where the command lacked the needed equipment, the accused was justified “by the absence of hope or relief, inability to offer further resistance or the certainty or extreme probability that no further efforts could prevent the place, post or thing falling into enemy hands.”
Meanwhile, the Nigerian army announced that it was going to review the cases of soldiers dismissed from service over cowardice, insubordination, mutiny and related allegations.
The process of revisiting cases against military officers and soldiers previously involved in the ongoing operations against the Boko Haram insurgency in the north-east was initiated by the new chief of staff, Major-General Tukur Buratai.
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