The national industrial court (NIC) in Lagos has ordered the Nigerian Army to reinstate 70 soldiers convicted by courts-martial in 2014 but later granted a presidential pardon by the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a judgement delivered on July 20, Sanda Yelwa, the presiding judge, held that the unconditional pardon granted under section 175 of the 1999 Constitution wiped out the soldiers’ convictions, sentences and dismissals, restoring their legal status and entitling them to reinstatement.
The judgement was contained in a statement issued on Monday by Tayo Soyemi of Falana & Falana Chambers, solicitors to the claimants.
The suit, marked NICN/LA/54/2023, was filed by the 70 soldiers against the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and the chief of army staff (COAS) after the military authorities allegedly failed to act on their request for reinstatement following the presidential pardon.
According to the statement, the claimants sought declarations that the pardon nullified their convictions and dismissals, an order compelling their reinstatement, and payment of outstanding salaries and allowances from December 17, 2014.
The soldiers were tried before various courts-martial in 2014 over offences bordering on conspiracy and mutiny.
Although initially sentenced to death, their sentences were later commuted to 10 years’ imprisonment.
After serving their prison terms, Buhari granted them an unconditional presidential pardon through the Instrument of Grant of Pardon, 2022, published in the Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette dated July 29, 2022.
The statement said the soldiers, through Falana & Falana Chambers, wrote to the COAS on November 7, 2022, requesting reinstatement and payment of outstanding entitlements, but received no response despite an acknowledgement of their letter.
Funmi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who led Chukwuma Onwumene for the claimants, argued that the presidential pardon extinguished every legal consequence of the convictions, including the soldiers’ dismissal from service.
The federal government, represented by Omobolanle Aina, opposed the suit, arguing that while a presidential pardon forgives an offence and restores civil rights, it does not erase the historical fact of a conviction or automatically entitle a beneficiary to reinstatement.
According to the statement, the COAS neither entered an appearance nor filed a defence in the case.
In his judgement, the judge held that the official gazette constituted conclusive proof that all 70 claimants benefited from the presidential pardon and found that the army failed to challenge the evidence or explain why the request for reinstatement was ignored.
The judge ruled that the soldiers’ dismissals were direct consequences of their courts-martial convictions and could not survive the presidential pardon.
He held that although reinstatement would require an administrative process by the Nigerian Army, the claimants had acquired an enforceable legal right to return to service because the constitutional barrier to their employment had been removed.
On the claim for salaries, the court declined to award arrears covering the period from December 17, 2014, to July 17, 2022, holding that the soldiers were not entitled to salaries for periods during which they neither served nor performed official duties because they were imprisoned.
Yelwa also held that the instrument granting the pardon did not provide for the retrospective payment of salaries.
The court subsequently ordered the immediate reinstatement of the 70 soldiers, effective July 18, 2022, and directed the defendants to pay all salaries, allowances and other emoluments accruing from that date until their actual reinstatement.
