Nigerian Air Force Transfers Officer To Prison After Detention Since 2021 For Delivering Lecture At Christian Association, CAN Event

 

 

The Nigerian Air Force has transferred one of its detained officers to prison, after holding them incommunicado since October 2021, in Jos, Plateau State, for preaching at a Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) event, SaharaReporters learnt on Saturday.

SaharaReporters had reported on September 27 that the Nigerian Air Force detained five officers since 2021 for delivering a lecture at a CAN event in Kaduna State.

It had been reported that the personnel were arrested and detained since October 13, 2021, over alleged disobedience to the Military standing rules.

The detainees had cried out over their unjust incarceration, lamenting inhumane treatment at their various detention facilities in both Kaduna and Plateau states, while calling on the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, to intervene in their matter.

SaharaReporters learned that shortly after the report was published, the Air Force authorities seized the detainees' phones and denied them any access to lawyers and families.

A source monitoring their detention told SaharaReporters on Saturday morning, that one other person had been taken to prison for the charge of disobedience to a certain order, citing a signal that came on Friday.

The source said: "One person has been taken to prison for the charge of disobedience to a particular order as stated in the signal. He is imprisoned for two years after spending close to two years in the Air Force Detention cell.”

SaharaReporters reported that one MWO Chiroma had been sentenced to two years imprisonment each on two count charges. "Both charges are disobedience to a standing order," a source had disclosed.

A very senior officer with the Air Force told SaharaReporters that the affected personnel were never arrested apart from one Reverend, who was arrested in the barracks by men of the Nigerian Army from Special Task Force (STF) Jos.

"Those five detainees were invited on October 13, 2021, through phone calls by a senior officer. According to the officer, their invitation was to aid an ongoing investigation in DIA (Defence Intelligent Agency). When they got to DIA that same day, they were immediately handcuffed and taken to an underground cell.

"They were there for two months. It was later that we got to know that it was about a lecture they presented at an event organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Brigade previously."

The source further noted that after concerns were raised on the whereabouts of the flight officers they were later moved from DIA to NAF base in Kaduna. "We were depressed to see them on hand and leg cuffs and we learned that they were in that chain for three months.

"Their families didn't know their whereabouts, some of us felt they had been killed. They were not allowed access to lawyers. On December 25, 2022, they were all transferred to NAF Base Jos, where their Court Marshal held."

“Suffice it to state that these people some of them have served this country between 25 and 28 years illegally denied from seeing their families for these years, some of their now lawyers wrote severally to NAF headquarters, the source lamented.

He further added, "The Court Marshal lasted about five months before they were pronounced guilty on two charges for disobedience to standing order and was sentenced to two years in prison on each count charge."

They were told that there would be a review of their pronouncement but regrettably, that hasn't been seen, the source explained.