Travail Of A Worker: Oyebanji Family Demands Justice From Chief Of Air Staff A Year After Detention

The wife and family of Master Warrant Officer (MWO) Michael Oyebanji have demanded for justice from the Nigeria Air Force, especially the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, over the continued detention of the officer on what they termed trumped up charges.

Oyebanji has worked in the Air Force for 30 years, and has planned to retire from service this year before his travail started in 2018, due to an alleged refusal to grant loan from the Cooperative he runs along three others, to a superior officer.

Already, Oyebanji had spent over 580 days behind bars; and his wife, Mrs Oyebanji has cried out that her husband should not be allowed to spend another Christmas in detention, as the officer spent the last Christmas in detention in Makurdi.

The family has, therefore, called on organised labour, especially the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the civil society organisations, human rights groups, and all Nigerians to help save her husband. She pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to set up an independent investigation to unravel the reason behind the sentence and travail of the accused.

Specifically, the family of Oyebanji is asking Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar to confirm the decision of the earlier court martial that found him guilty of 46 count charges over N41 million theft, so that they can proceed to the superior court, the Court of Appeal to challenge what the family and his lawyer have described as a predetermined verdict.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar is in position to confirm the verdict of a court martial held against the accused, not later than three months after the verdict. The judgement was passed in September, but the accused has been behind bars since 2019, and has remained in the Air Force holding after the court martial verdict till date.

A clergyman, Mr. Adeyemi Adediran who represented the family, and Barrister Sunday Adukwu, Counsel to the defendant, who spoke with some labour correspondents on the travail of Oyebanji, blamed the delay in the confirmation for his continued detention, and thus denying the accused of his right to seek redress at the Court of Appeal.

Though, they described the court martial as a kangaroo, they were no longer disturbed about the verdict of the court but the undue delay in its confirmation, to allow them do the needful.

Barrister Adukwu, also a former military man who has handled 25 court martial cases before his present case discredited the verdict of the court martial that tried Oyebanji but said with his knowledge of the process he wasn’t surprised. He said he was not surprised because, “the court is not a regular court. Court martial is a court that at the point of setting up, all the members are told by the commander that ‘this is what I want’.

The lawyer said: “They are still the ones keeping us, because we cannot appeal unless it is confirmed. The decision of Court Martial was not final, they are subject to confirmation by the highest authority, the Air Force Headquarters. The Air Force I know very well would not be in a hurry to confirm it, because they know the decision will not survive in the Court of Appeal. So, what they would do is to delay the confirmation to punish Oyebanji in jail.”

He added: “I am calling for the confirmation of Oyebanji court martial. They should as soon as possible do the confirmation so the decision they have taken would be tested elsewhere.

“After confirmation we will go to the Court of Appeal. We have to challenge that obnoxious decision because there is no way a man will be standing trial for 46 count charges, even if he said nothing, the court on its own can look at the charges and say no, the prosecutor did not prove this, and this and will discharge him on those grounds.

“But they returned conviction on the whole 46. That tells you that, that court is not a court. It is a kangaroo court, I told them to their faces. They just set out to deal with him, that is all. Let me tell you this, they were just after MW Oyebanji and nobody else; otherwise, Oyebanji was a Vice President. What did they do to the President? If you feel these people actually committed offence, then you set the President free, he was only given a reprimand with six months loss of seniority. Is that punishment?

“Oyebanji was reduced from Master Warrant Officer to corporal, each rank takes you five years. So, how many years left for him? They left the President, they left the Secretary, they left the Treasurer. It is even the Treasurer and the Vice President they punished at all. The Treasurer was reduced from Warrant Officer to Corporal.

“In one of their allegations, they said the Vice President forged a document, but the Police that did the investigation told everybody in the open court that he did not investigate any allegation bordening on forgery. They still convicted him on forgery. How did the court arrive at that because the only person who could have proved that forgery was the man that did the investigation. It is unfortunate.”

He also questioned the court martial process, alleging the judgements were predetermined. The lawyer further alleged that most of the charges levelled against the accused were duplicated and mopped-up to bring the officer to disrepute.

During the trial, the lawyer said Oyebanji was able to clear all the 46 count charges against him, saying, “when we entered our defence, Oyebanji was able to clear all the 46 count charges, given specific reason on what all the money were used for, backed with evidence.

“One of the charges was shocking. It has one name bearing Michael Aniete, it was a loan taken by Aniete, but they said it is Oyebanji, they charged him. You know when you are out to witch-hunt people, as soon as they saw the name, Michael, they didn’t look at it whether it is Oyebanji or not, and they picked it, leveled a charge against him. Upon this, they found him guilty of the 46 count charges.”

Also, Barrister Adukwu said failed transactions which came in form of botched cheques were among the listed charges and used against his client. Besides, the lawyer added that a power generating set procured by the cooperative unit for office use was also listed as an evidence against the accused, despite being procured with a receipt.

He regretted that some of these facts, presented with documents and receipts were disregarded by the military court and listed among the 46 count charges levelled against the accused.

More astonishingly, he said the Chairman and Secretary of Board of Enquiry collected all the original documents and receipts during the investigation and later claimed that those documents were burnt and could not be produced during the trial but for the photocopies in their custody.

He said: “When they started investigation, the Chairman and Secretary of the Board of Enquiry collected the original receipts and other documents. They now said the vehicle and house of the secretary got burnt and all the original documents were inside the vehicle.”

The lawyer, therefore, insisted that his client did not commit the offences as charged but the Air Force refused to release him from detention, and also deliberately over-delaying his right to appeal.

A statement issued by Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, the Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force on September 26, 2020, confirmed the sentence and the right of the accused to seek redress at a higher court.

The statement titled: “General Court Martial sentences WMO Oyebanji, three others to 21 years imprisonment, reduction in rank,” said the President of the General Court Martial, sitting at the Nigerian Air Force Base, Markudi, Air Commodore Nazir Aliyu, pronounced the four accused guilty of various charges.

Air Commodore Daramola said: “MWO Michael Oyebanji, who was the Vice President of the Cooperative, was tried on a 46 count charge, including; criminal breach of trust, theft, criminal conspiracy, criminal misappropriation, making of false documents and conduct to the prejudice of service discipline, contrary to Sections 114 and 103 (d) of the Armed Forces Act Cap A20 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004 and Sections 312, 287, 96 and 309 of the Penal Code Cap P3 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004. He was found guilty on all 46 counts and subsequently sentenced to serve 21 years imprisonment, cumulatively, as well as reduction in rank to Corporal and ordered to refund all monies misappropriated.”

He added, “the sentences were announced as being subject to confirmation by the Appropriate Superior Authority. However, it is within the rights of the Accused Personnel to appeal the judgment of the GCM, if they are dissatisfied.”

The wife of the accused, Mrs Oyebanji said a superior officer is deliberately out to deal with his husband, and called on Nigerians, the civil society organisations, human rights groups, and most especially the organized labour to help her save her husband. She said she has alone been taking care of the children in the absence of her husband over a year ago.

Specifically, she pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to assist the poor in the society and call for independent investigation into the case to know the actual truth. She pointed out that her husband has been subjected to inhuman treatment, citing a clear example that the Air Force supposed to be feeding him while in detention or paying a certain amount of money for his feeding, but has not done that since he was detained over a year ago.

She said the family will be writing the NLC, CSOs, human rights groups and other international organizations to seek their interventions on the issue.

Her major concern now is that her husband should not be allowed, by Nigerians and especially President Buhari, to spend another Christmas in detention, adding, “at least, the Chief of Air Staff should confirm my husband sentence, and allow us to take the case to the Court of Appeal where we can appeal and seek for his release.”

When contacted on Sunday, the Director of Public Relations and Information, Nigerian Air Force, Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, said the process of its confirmation has started, and pointed out that the case was already undergoing review by the legal team of the Air Force and that the delay being experienced was due to the volume of count charges against the accused.

He said: “The process is ongoing, the Legal Department of the Nigerian Air Force is reviewing the court martial findings. When they do that, they send it to the appropriate superior authority who will now, based on the brief, take a decision on that.”

Asked if it is possible for the Chief of Air Staff to free him after the review, if the legal team found something unworthy in the trial, Air Commodore Daramola said: “ I am not a lawyer. It is not in my position to speak on that, I can’t speak on that. I don’t know the content, all I know like you is what was pronounced by the General Court Martial, and I don’t know the details of what they found and the evidence, I wasn’t there.

“But as the procedure, the rule is that once a court martial makes its judgement, it sends to the appropriate superior authority, the authority based on the legal review and the recommendations that are made to it will now determine to confirm the judgement or otherwise as the case may be. Once that is done, the lawyer to the accused can now go ahead with appeal to a court of higher jurisdiction. That is the procedure.

On the possible timeline for the process to be concluded as the process should be within three months, he said: “The three months, has it expired now? We wait until those days expire before we can say. You know there were 46 count charges against him. So, reviewing all of that to ensure that everything is done properly is not a small task.  In order to ensure that there is no miscarriage of justice it must be done very painstakingly so that the appropriate superior authority will be given the right counsel in terms of taking the ultimate decision on their final decision. So, that is the reason why you may say it has been a while. It is the number of count charges. Every single one of them has to be reviewed and the evidence that was used against him must be looked at, and each of the findings and the punishment awarded must also be looked at and the appropriate advice would be given.”