The General Court Martial,GCM, of the Nigerian Army, yesterday, sentenced Lt Col Robert Ahangba, former Aide De Camp to late General Azazi, to seven years imprisonment for using the name of his former boss to collect N150 million from the former Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva, to facilitate his second term as governor.
The court also ordered that the sum be refunded to Bayelsa State Government and empowered the Military Police and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to ensure the amount is paid.
The court, after sitting for 10 hours, found the accused with service number N9827 guilty on two counts out of the four he was charged with.
The officer was charged for obtaining money under false pretence, disobedience to standing order and conduct of prejudice to service discipline.
Chaired by the President of the GCM, Brigadier General Edward Nze and the Judge Advocate, Captain Chukwudi Okonkwo, the court discovered that the accused lodged the said money in his account.
Nze said as a rule, ex-convicts don’t serve in the Armed Forces and so if the superior authorities enforce the decision of the court, it automatically means that the officer has been dismissed.
The entire sum to be returned, according to the court, was N142,345,654, “in accordance with Subsection 2 of Section 174 of the Armed Forces Act and laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
“This court, after thorough evaluation of evidence before it, the service record of the convict and allocotus of the defence, also considered the grave effect of the serving officer, which is an act of indiscipline in the NA and came to certain conclusions.
“But the court frowns at the convict’s conduct as a serving officer, who had the golden opportunity to work with one of the finest generals this country has ever had.
“But instead of taking the advantage, he decided to embrace the disgraceful get-rich-quick syndrome.
“Worse still, he had abandoned his earlier line of defence because during investigation he attempted to paint the late General black.
“The court, therefore, sentences the convict to seven years imprisonment for obtaining money under pretence subject to confirmation from superior authorities.”
On the monies to be returned, the court listed the sum as N25 million, N30 million and N29 milliom to be retrieved from Union Bank account and N48 million deposited at First Bank in the account name of Roberta Nigerian Limited.
The sum of N11 million was also traced to Living Faith Church, which was paid in two installments: N9 million and N2 million as well as other monies given to some messengers.
However, Nze said the decision of the court was subject to superior authority, which in this case is the Army Headquarters.
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