A Special Court-Martial in Maiduguri, Borno State, has sentenced three Nigerian soldiers to life imprisonment and a fourth to 15 years in prison for running an illegal arms racket in collusion with police officers and criminal groups. The court, presided over by Brigadier General Ugochukwu Unachukwu and headed by Court President Brigadier General Mohammed Abdullahi, delivered its ruling after weeks of hearings.
Those sentenced to life are Sergeant Raphael Ameh, Sergeant Ejiga Musa, and Lance Corporal Patrick Ocheje. Corporal Omitoye Rufus received a 15-year jail term. They were convicted of theft, unlawful possession and sale of ammunition, and aiding the enemy. According to investigators, Sergeant Ameh, who once served as the armourer of the 7 Division Garrison in Maiduguri, masterminded the theft of ammunition from the division’s armoury. He allegedly concealed the weapons inside bags of beans and smuggled them to Enugu and Ebonyi States. Bank records revealed over 100 suspicious transactions linked to him.
Sergeant Musa, the armourer of the 195 Battalion, reportedly worked with Ocheje and police collaborators to sell stolen weapons, pocketing more than ₦500,000 before his arrest. Ocheje was further found guilty of diverting ammunition and stealing a fellow soldier’s AK-47 rifle. Meanwhile, Rufus was convicted of selling 40 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition to a police officer. The court ruled that their actions gravely undermined Nigeria’s counter-insurgency operations in the northeast and posed a serious threat to national security. Military prosecutors emphasized that the convictions send a clear message of zero tolerance for betrayal within the armed forces, especially at a time when soldiers are fighting insurgent groups in Borno and beyond.
