Court martial jails Army General 7 years on 14 counts
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Major General Umaru Mohammed, former Group Managing Director of Nigerian Army Properties Limited (NAPL), has been convicted of corruption and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment by a military court.
The Nigerian Army special court martial in Abuja also ordered him to pay back $2,178,900 (about N2.1 billion at N1,000/$) plus another $6.9 million.
Mohammed was tried on 18 counts involving forgery, misappropriation of funds, and conspiracy, among others.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges, but the court martial found him guilty of 14 counts.
Ruling on charges
The eight-man panel, headed by Major General James Myam, sentenced him to five years’ imprisonment on count one and ordered him to refund $1,045,400.000 to NAPL.
Mohammed was also:
- Found guilty on count two, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and ordered pay back $480,000 to NAPL.
- Found guilty on count three, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and ordered to refund $85,400.
- Found guilty on counts four, five, six and nine, sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for each, and ordered to refund $35,300, $55,500, $46,500 and $430,800.
The military court said the sentences run concurrently but are subject to the confirmation of the authorities, according to reporting by The PUNCH.
Mohammed’s counsel Lekan Ojo, SAN in his oral application cited Section 157 of the Armed Forces Act and asked the court to move his client to a custodial centre.
“The sentence of the court martial begins to run the day it is pronounced. I hereby pray the court to move him to the correctional centre and not the Army detention facility,” he said.
The court turned down the application.
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Ruling on other charges
The prosecution counsel had called 24 witnesses at the hearing, and the defendant two, according to The PUNCH.
The counsel said count one was brought under Section 383(1) of the Criminal Code Act Cap c38 law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, punishable under Section 390 (7), and also brought under Section 114 of the armed forces Act Cap A20 2004.
The court noted that Mohammed was accused of stealing $1.04 million between 7 May 2019 and 24 June 2021, while serving as NAPL Director General.
The court also held that in counts 2,3,4,5 and 6 Mohammed was accused of giving instructions to Major Usman and one other at large to collect money from ship owners in dollars. He was found guilty as charged in all the counts.
He was found not guilty in count 7 regarding criminal conspiracy to forge a document with one Yusuf Abdulahi, and also not guilty in count 17 – withdrawing N750 million from NAPL account.
But he was found guilty in:
- Count 8 and in count 9, and also found guilty of stealing $430, 800.
- Count 10 – conspiracy to forge document.
- Count 12 – selling the company property for N200 million while no longer serving at NAPL.
- Count 13 – dishonestly taking N74 million from NAPL account on 22 August 2019.
- Counts 14, 15, 16, and 18 – criminal misappropriation.
- Guilty of his inability to account for N2.5 billion.
