For attending an event at the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN in Kaduna, which they delivered lectures, five officers of the Nigeria Air Force have been rotting away having been arrested on October 13, 2021.
Since their arrest and detention, they have been completely excommunication from their families, and known contacts, a development they are crying out to the new Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar to intervene in their cases.
Reports said, the five officers were accused of disobedience to the military rules, hence, they were detained in Jos, capital of Plateau State with one among them transferred to Kaduna.
They were also accused of preaching at a Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) event.
It had been reported that the personnel were arrested and detained since October 13, 2021, over alleged disobedience to the Military standing rules.
When the news of the detainees was first published by SaharaReporters, an online media platform, their phones were reportedly seizedand access to their lawyers denied by the Air Force high command.
A source monitoring their detention revealed on Saturday that one other person had been taken to prison for the charge of disobedience to a certain order, citing a signal that came on Friday.
The source said: “One person has been taken to prison for the charge of disobedience to a particular order as stated in the signal. He is imprisoned for two years after spending close to two years in the Air Force Detention cell.”
The source said: “one MWO Chiroma had been sentenced to two years imprisonment each on two count charges. “Both charges are disobedience to a standing order.”
A very senior officer with the Air Force stated that the personnel were never arrested apart from one Reverend, who was arrested in the barracks by men of the Nigerian Army from Special Task Force (STF) Jos.
“Those five detainees were invited on October 13, 2021, through phone calls by a senior officer. According to the officer, their invitation was to aid an ongoing investigation in DIA (Defence Intelligent Agency). When they got to DIA that same day, they were immediately handcuffed and taken to an underground cell.
“They were there for two months. It was later that we got to know that it was about a lecture they presented at an event organised by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Brigade previously.”
The source further noted that after concerns were raised on the whereabouts of the flight officers they were later moved from DIA to NAF base in Kaduna. “We were depressed to see them on hand and leg cuffs and we learned that they were in that chain for three months.
“Their families didn’t know their whereabouts, some of us felt they had been killed. They were not allowed access to lawyers. On December 25, 2022, they were all transferred to NAF Base Jos, where their Court Marshal held.”
“Suffice it to state that these people some of them have served this country between 25 and 28 years illegally denied from seeing their families for these years, some of their now lawyers wrote severally to NAF headquarters, the source lamented.
He further added, “The Court Marshal lasted about five months before they were pronounced guilty on two charges for disobedience to standing order and was sentenced to two years in prison on each count charge.”
They were told that there would be a review of their pronouncement but regrettably, that hasn’t been seen, the source explained.
