Naija News

Boko Haram denies alleged dialogue with Borno

THERE may soon be a marked departure in the Federal Government's prosecution of persons arrested for security breaches in the country.

Such persons instead of being arraigned before the nation's conventional courts may face trial in courts operated by members of the Armed Forces.

Clarifications on the categories of persons to appear before such courts were sketchy yesterday but the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ola Sa'ad Ibrahim, simply said with the growing trend of threats to national security, the Federal Government might use military justice system for the prosecution of offenders.

"Additionally, the current threats to national security could result in the use of military justice system for the prosecution of offenders. In the unlikely event that Nigeria would engage in inter-state conflicts in the foreseeable future, efforts are now being channelled towards the development of capacities for dealing with evolving challenges," he said.

Although, Ibrahim refrained from mentioning what constitutes threat to national security, the activities of the Boko Haram sect, whose members have been declared the enemy of the state and militants, who are classified as economic saboteurs, as well as kidnappers may be affected.

Also expected to appear before such courts are former or serving military and police personnel, who are linked or arrested in connection with the activities of terror groups.

Ibrahim, who said gone were the days when court-martial decisions were nullified by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, explained that the Armed Forces had taken proactive measures to ensure that military court enjoys the desired independence and impartiality in their proceedings.

Opening a seminar on "Military law and development of commander and legal officer relationship" yesterday in Abuja, the naval chief said efforts had been stepped up to ensure that "the rights of accused persons are not violated during trial."

He added that in the wake of perceived inter-state conflicts in the foreseeable future in the country, the Nigerian Armed Forces had started developing capacities of its personnel to deal with emerging challenges.

Admiral Ibrahim identified some of the challenges as terrorism, militancy, human trafficking and other gender and culture-based cross border crimes, and stressed the need for service personnel to be abreast with the demands of military discipline during such operations.

He noted that the training and retraining of personnel would help stem the tide of violations that often characterised deployment of troops in crisis areas.

Ibrahim said the current threats to national security could result in the use of the military justice system for prosecution of offenders, adding that Africa is today faced with several challenges that would require the deployment of appropriate legal regime.

The naval chief lamented that court-martial decisions are often viewed with skepticism by civil criminal justice administrative system and sometimes nullified by the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. To check the trend, he said the Armed Forces had taken pro-active measures to ensure that "courts-martial enjoy the desired independence and impartiality during proceedings."

Ibrahim stressed the importance of the seminar, adding that the timing was apt and called for the amendment of the Armed Forces Act 2004 to meet emerging trends in military criminal justice administration.