Army convicts major general over fraud, demotes him to brigadier general

- A military court martial convicts Major General Ibrahim Sani on a five-count charge bordering on cheating

- General Sani has been standing trial in the court since 2015 after he was accused of dividing and allocating part of army land to himself

- The army general was accused of dividing the land into two and allocated one part to himself, using a pseudo company in which he was the sole signatory

A military special court martial has demoted Ibrahim Sani, a major general and former chief of transformation and innovation centre of the Nigerian Army, to a brigadier-general.

READ ALSO: Senate releases names of banned anti-malaria medicines

The president of the court, James Gbum, an air vice marshal, on Thursday, July 20, demoted Mr. Sani after he convicted him on a five-count charge bordering on cheating, The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Mr. Sani had been standing trial in the court since 2015 after he was accused of dividing and allocating part of army land to himself.

The court sat at the Mogadishu Cantonment, Asokoro, Abuja.

Mr. Gbum also ordered Mr. Sani to return N23 million being the money he got after he sold the part of the army land to himself.

The court held that the convict fraudulently allocated to himself part of the land – 436 hectares, in Abuja and sold it.

The court president also held that Mr. Sani went beyond the mandate given to him by the army authorities which was “only to collect the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O)’’ from relevant FCT Agency.

He said the convict divided the land into two and allocated one part to himself, using a pseudo company in which he was the sole signatory.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigeria’s #1 new app

Mr. Gbum said the convict sold portions of the land to different three people at N10 million, N7 million and N6 million, respectively.

The court president, however, said the conviction and sentence was subject to the confirmation of the Army Council.

Counsel to Mr. Sani, Paul Sule, said he would appeal to the army council to quash the sentence.

Mr. Sule said should the council refuse to quash the sentence, he would approach the Court of Appeal to do that.

Meanwhile, a former governor of Jigawa state, Ibrahim Saminu Turaki has been granted bail by a federal High Court in Abuja after he was re arraigned on a 32 count charge for corruption.

The fresh charges border mainly on conspiracy to conceal the genuine nature of N12 Billion Naira paid by a firm, Natural Resources Ltd, as signature bonus for Oil Prospecting License officially allocated to them by the federal government of Nigeria in 2006.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was said to failed to arraign any of the 2nd - 4th defendants which were firms allegedly involved in the transactions.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was said to failed to arraign any of the 2nd - 4th defendants which were firms allegedly involved in the transactions.

The development was said to be annoyed when the presiding Judge, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba and further fuelled speculations in many quarters that the whole trial was politically instigated against the former governor.

In the video below, the EFCC organised a march tagged ‘walk against corruption’ in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.