Don’t kill our husbands, wives of condemned soldiers cry out

Wives of the 12 Nigerian soldiers sentenced to death by the special military tribunal for mutiny, have appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan and western nations to prevail on the military authorities to commute the death sentence to a lesser punishment. The appeal came against the backdrop of the insistence of the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Vice Marshal Alex Badeh in some media reports last week that the army authorities will carry out the execution of the affected soldiers.

Five of the wives of the condemned officers who spoke on behalf of their colleagues in telephone interviews with Daily Sun under the condition of anonymity, said if the military killed the 12 soldiers, their immediate families would have also been killed, saying “when the breadwinner of a family is killed, the whole family is perished too.” Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) has condemned the death sentence passed on the soldiers over charges of mutiny. In a statement issued by its High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe on the European, Mr. Thorbjorn Jagland, the EU condemned the military tribunal’s judgment and expressed concern on the verdict.

The affected soldiers are: Jasper Braidolor, David Musa, Friday Onuh, Yusuf Shuaibu, Igonmu Emmanuel, Andrew Ugbede, Nurudeen Ahmed, Ifeanyi Alukagba, Alao Samuel, Amadi Chukwuma, Alan Linus, and Stephen Clement.They were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, mutiny, and attempt to commit murder (shooting of the vehicle of the GOC); insubordination to a particular order; insubordination and false accusation.Their wives described the military tribunal’s judgment as a deliberate way of destabilising the future of the children of the soldiers, saying once they were executed their children would definitely have bleak future.

“The military authorities should please tamper justice with mercy by commuting the capital punishment to lighter punishment, so that our children will not be sent out of school and become miscreants in the society. “Most of the children left un catered for are mostly being used by the dreaded Islamist sect while others are engaged in one crime or the other and we don’t want our children to be part of the miscreants that will be causing social-insecurity in the country. That is why we are appealing to the relevant authorities to spare the lives of the fathers of our children.

“We therefore, make a passionate appeal to President Jonathan and the western countries to wade into the matter, so as to save the lives of our breadwinners. “They should also consider that the young officers have aged parents they are caring for and since the incident, there has been tensions and most of the aged parents have fallen sick due to the death sentence passed on their sons,” the women said. Consequently, they appealed to the president to, “prevail on the military authorities to spare the lives of our husbands in the interest of our immediate families and their aged parents, who will face untold hardship if the military authorities carried out the judgment.”