SaharaReporters on October 10 teporyed that Mohammed, who was former Group Managing Director and Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Army Properties Limited, was court-martialled for fraud and found guilty of stealing over $430,000, and had been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has called on the Nigerian authorities to ensure that all those indicted by jailed Major-General Umar Muazu Mohammed, who was court-martialled for fraud and found guilty of stealing over $430,000 were equally tried.
SaharaReporters on October 10 teporyed that Mohammed, who was former Group Managing Director and Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Army Properties Limited, was court-martialled for fraud and found guilty of stealing over $430,000, and had been sentenced to seven years in prison.
The Special Court Martial set up by the Nigerian Army also ordered Maj. Gen. Mohammed to pay back the sum of $2,178,900 and N1.65 billion to the Army properties and NAPL.
The Special Court-Martial had earlier found Mohammed guilty of 14 out of 18 counts brought against him, which are all contrary to service laws.
The charges included stealing, forgery, conspiracy, theft, and unauthorized diversion of Army property among others and they are all subject to service discipline.
Reacting to the decision of the Court-martial while featuring ln Channels TV programme, Falana, described the sentence as sound, adding that the decision would be difficult to set aside by Appeal Court.
He, however, stated that the trial of the former Chief of Army Staff, indicted in the case must not be swept under the carpet.
"I had followed the case and I was quite pleased with the turnout of the event - I mean the conclusion. The judgment is very sound and I think it is going to be difficult, quite difficult to set it aside because it wasn't really denied that these offences took place. I think at a stage what the general did say as the defendant was that he wasn't acting alone and I do hope that that aspect of his defence will be considered and followed up by the authorities.
"He indicted a particular former Chief of Army Staff that most of the time he was taking instructions from him; that cannot be swept under the carpet. But in terms of the quality of the judgement I want to believe that general court-martial did very well."
He explained that in very high-profile cases of such nature, the losing side would always appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
The legal luminary noted that the judgment of the military court was not final. "It is a military court that you either have general court-martial or the special court-martial and after they have delivered their judgement the convicted Army officer or soldier has the right under the constitution to approach the Court of Appeal and if he is not satisfied with the decision of the Court of Appeal he will also have to go to the Supreme Court."
On how frequently court-martial happened, he said "Well it happens from time to time when serving military officers who violate or contravene provisions of the Armed Forces Act are usually charged but they are investigated if you're indicted you will be tried. It is because of the nature of this case that has attracted the public attention."
He added that when issues of corruption or diversion of public funds were talked about, people wondered it was coming from, and "now the question of the war against corruption hasn't quite taken shape under this regime. So people are wondering what is going on."
SaharaReporters exclusively reported that Maj. Gen. Mohammed was being court-martialled in Abuja for allegations bordering on fraud and stealing.
Sources had told SaharaReporters that Mohammed had opened up a can of worms as the senior military officer narrated how former Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai (retd.) allowed the sale of houses by the Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL) to politicians and Very Important Personalities (VIPs) at a ridiculous 75 percent discount.
Mohammed is a former ally of Buratai, who spent five years and five months in office. SaharaReporters learned that he revealed during his cross-examination that the allocation of houses to civilians followed a directive from Buratai.
SaharaReporters learnt from the top inside sources at the court-martial that the embattled Major-General further revealed that the VIPs and politicians were relations and friends of the then First Lady, Aisha Buhari, who were used as beneficiaries to receive the houses on her behalf as a gift from Gen. Buratai.
SaharaReporters also reported that the Nigerian Army had prevented journalists from covering the trial of Maj. Gen. U. M. Mohammed despite claiming that it was an open trial.
SaharaReporters had exposed how the Nigerian Army secretly detained Mohammed after exposing how he laundered funds for Buratai.
This was despite claims made by the Army headquarters through Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, Director of Army Public Relations, that the trial was “held in the open” and “not shrouded in secrecy”.
Meanwhile, based on the account of one of the top lawyers at the court-martial, it was revealed that “during a previous court martial sitting that took place recently, Major General A.A. Adesope, a former Group Managing Director (GMD) of Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL), who spoke as a witness of the Nigerian Army, testified that he spent only 41 days as the GMD of NAPL.”
According to Mohammed, “On March 19, Buratai directed one Lt Col Christy to make payment for the houses allocated to the VVIPs and politicians to Access Bank with account name FCCNAPL and account number 0769911478.”
He continued, “When Adesope took over NAPL and found out about the allocation to the civilians and 75% discount, he quickly made a report to Lt. Gen. Buratai (Rtd) accusing me of misappropriation, without reaching out to me for verification. Gen Buratai now called me to find out how Adesope got to know about the allocation and discount, I told him it was captured in the sales records handed over to Adesope. Buratai became so annoyed and ordered for his posting out as GMD, that was why Adesope spent only 41 days in NAPL.”
A senior military source had added, “From our investigations, the VVIPs and politicians are family and friends of Aisha Buhari who were used as beneficiaries, to receive the houses on her behalf as a gift from Gen Buratai.”
The newspaper had also reported that Maj. Gen. Mohammed, until his arrest and secret detention in the past year, was in charge of the NAPL.
Sources had told SaharaReporters that Mohammed was being punished at the behest of Buratai with whom he was involved in illegalities and shady dealings, carried out on the orders of the former Army chief while he was in office.
As the officer in charge of NAPL, Mohammed controlled army properties across the country.
SaharaReporters had reported that while being court-martialled, Mohammed, who had been arrested and held in secret detention since January 2022, confessed that Buratai asked him to pay $730,000 to obtain Saudi Arabia citizenship for him (Buratai) in order to evade justice for the atrocities committed by the army while he was the chief of staff.
Meanwhile, the court-martial had been going on secretly since September 2022.
Checks by SaharaReporters revealed that he was initially arrested for “terrorism financing” to cover up for the real reason behind his ordeal.
Sources also told SaharaReporters that Mohammed told the special court that on the orders of Buratai, he also released funds for trips for the wives of the former Army chief and some military activities like the movement of people when Buhari opened the Nigerian Army University in Biu, Borno State.
It was learnt that Buratai also instructed Mohammed to pay huge sums of money to some Muslim clerics “praying for Buratai’s administration” as Chief of Army Staff at the time.
One of the sources had said, “For instance, the last one he gave evidence, and this is in evidence in court that about $700,000 was used. He (Buratai) instructed him to process a Saudi Arabia residence permit for him.
“And he was also told to release money to fund the trips of his wives and also fund some military activities like the movement of people when Buhari opened some things in Biu - the Army University and some military activities. That was where he was directing that funds should be released.
“He also gave evidence of how several thousands of dollars he was ordered to release to some mallams (Islamic clerics) whom he said were praying for his administration. They were the ones that would censor any activities that he was going to undertake.
“For instance, the appointment of some persons or posting of some military officers; those ones whose names will be submitted to the mallams to determine in the spirit whether they would be loyal or not. So those things were funded in hundreds of thousands of dollars, he gave this in evidence.
“And then besides several international trips, he would ask the man to give out money. This involved several Generals, even some who were sitting as members of the panel. They also benefited from some of the foreign trips. They were paid hundreds of thousands in estacodes.”
On why Mohammed didn't say no to certain things as the MD of NAPL, one of the sources said, “If only you know how the military operates; that would amount to insubordination.
“If your boss asks you to do something and then you say no, that is insubordination and that was the reason why he used NAPL to fund personal and official activities in the military.”
Another source had said, “In one, Mohammed told us how over N26 million was released to build piggery. What they were doing was directing him to release money. Mind you, they would call him while he was still serving as the MD of NAPL and a military officer.
“You know, in the military, orders are given orally and you do not disobey it. He (Buratai) would call him and ask him to release a certain amount of money. So that is how he was giving instructions and money was being released.”