TUC Makes Case For Convicted Soldiers

The leadership of the
Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has called on the military high command to review the death sentence passed on the 12 convicted soldiers for mutiny.
In a statement signed by its President, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama and Secretary General, last Tuesday, the union said it was wrong for the military tribunal to issue such a sentence against ill-equipped but gallant soldiers who battled the Boko Haram sect with unequalled bravery in the battle field.
The statement said the soldiers mutinous acts were not informed by cowardice but the undisputed evidence that they were all brave, willing combatants who only requested that they be sufficiently equipped for the task at hand and protested the avoidable deaths of their colleagues.
TUC said the circumstances that prompted the soldiers alleged offences needed to be considered,  stressing that they were weighty enough to serve as mitigating factors in the consideration of any punishment to be meted out to them.
The congress said any contrary view would only amount to sheer wickedness and insensitivity to the bravery of the soldiers.
TUC contended that the trial of the soldiers should be premised on the claim by the soldiers that the top military brass failed to adequately equip them with the right quality and quantity of weapons, ammunition and other equipment to prosecute the war against  the Boko Haram insurgents that they were ordered to confront.
TUC observed that the insurgents were equipped with superior up-to date fire power and other tools of war, a factor which had helped them to vanquish many  soldiers including several colleagues of the convicted ones.
The union’s statement insisted that if the death sentence was carried out, it would be no more than a special gift to the Boko Haram insurgents, stressing that it could also demoralize the rank and file of other brave soldiers.
TUC said if the soldiers must be punished, a sentence of no more than two years imprisonment should be meted on them.
The union leaders therefore, called on defence headquarters to review the tribunal’s decision in favour of the convicted soldiers, stressing that should the authorities omit, neglect or fail to act, then TUC’s expectation was that President Goodluck Jonathan would step in and exercise his prerogative of mercy by pardoning the convicted soldiers.