Appeal Court reverses conviction of Gen. Sani by court martial, orders re-trial

The Court of Appeal, Abuja, has set aside the decision of a special military court martial that convicted former Chief of Transformation and Innovation at the Army Headquarters, Maj.- Gen. Ibrahim Sani.

Justice Abubakar Yahaya led two other justices of the appellate court to void the proceedings leading to the conviction and sentencing.

The judgment given on April 18 was contained in an enrolled order made available to newsmen by Mr. Mahmud Magaji (SAN), counsel for the appellant (Sani) on Thursday in Abuja.

The appellate court was of the view that the appellant was denied fair hearing in the trial, holding that “the proceedings and judgment of the special court martial in respect of charge No: NA/COAS/GI/39/16 filed before the lower special court martial is hereby set aside. An order is made for the retrial of the charges against the appellant by another special court martial.’’

Speaking with newsmen, Magaji said that “by this decision, setting aside the judgment of the special court martial, the proceedings, conviction and sentence of the court never existed in the eyes of the law.

“They are null and void. Therefore, the Nigerian Army is obligated to obey the judgment by restoring the appellant to his rank as a major general with all his benefits and entitlements.”

Maj. Gen. Sani was arraigned on July 4, 2016 on a nine-count charge bordering on service property, making of false documents and cheating. The alleged offences were punishable under Sections 56 (2), 66 (a), 90 (a) and 113 (3) of the Armed Forces Act, 2004.

The charge was a fall out from an alleged criminal role he played in the management of a large parcel of land allocated to the army in the Asokoro area of the FCT.

He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment and in the course of the arraignment, count nine was struck out for being duplication of count three.