The National Industrial Court (NIC) in Lagos has directed the Nigerian Army to reinstate 70 soldiers who were convicted by courts-martial in 2014 but subsequently granted an unconditional presidential pardon by the late former President Muhammadu Buhari.
In a judgement delivered on July 20, presiding judge Sanda Yelwa held that the unconditional pardon granted under section 175 of the 1999 Constitution effectively wiped out the soldiers’ convictions, sentences and dismissals, restoring their legal standing and entitling them to return to service.
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 reinstatement request following the presidential pardon.
According to the statement, the soldiers 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 had been tried before various courts-martial in 2014 over offences relating to conspiracy and mutiny. Though initially condemned to death, their sentences were later commuted to 10 years’ imprisonment.
After completing 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, contending 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.
Notably, the COAS neither entered an appearance nor filed a defence in the case.
In his ruling, the judge held that the official gazette served as conclusive proof that all 70 claimants had benefited from the presidential pardon, and found that the army had failed to challenge the evidence or offer any explanation for ignoring the reinstatement request.
The judge ruled that the soldiers’ dismissals were a direct consequence of their courts-martial convictions and could not survive the presidential pardon.
He held that although reinstatement would require an administrative process on the part of the Nigerian Army, the claimants had acquired an enforceable legal right to return to service, as the constitutional barrier to their employment had been removed.
On the question of salary arrears, the court declined to award payments covering the period from December 17, 2014 to July 17, 2022, holding that the soldiers could not be entitled to salaries for periods during which they were imprisoned and neither served nor carried out official duties. The court also noted that the pardon instrument made no provision for retrospective salary payments.
The court subsequently ordered the immediate reinstatement of all 70 soldiers, effective July 18, 2022, and directed the defendants to pay all salaries, allowances and other entitlements accruing from that date until their actual reinstatement.