President Bola Tinubu has granted clemency to Major Suleiman Alabi Akubo, a Nigerian Army officer who was sentenced to life imprisonment for illegally selling over 7,000 military weapons to Niger Delta militants.
Akubo, 62, was among 175 individuals who recently received a presidential pardon and other forms of clemency, following recommendations approved by the National Council of State.
In a statement released on Saturday, the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced that Akubo’s life sentence had been commuted to 20 years’ imprisonment “in recognition of his good conduct and demonstrated remorse.”
Akubo’s case dates back to 2007, when he and several senior army officers were accused of selling thousands of stolen weapons from the Nigerian Army’s depots at the Command and Staff College in Jaji and the One Base Ordnance in Kaduna. The arms — including assault rifles, submachine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades — were reportedly sold to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a militant group active during the height of the region’s insurgency.
In November 2008, a military court in Kaduna found Akubo and five others guilty, sentencing them to life imprisonment for offences committed between January 2000 and December 2006. The presiding judge, Colonel Bala Usara, revealed that the stolen weapons — valued at about ₦100 million at the time — were sold to Sunny Okah, brother of MEND leader Henry Okah.
The case resurfaced in 2016 when MEND announced that the Federal Government had agreed to review the convictions of Akubo and five others under the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP).
President Tinubu’s clemency marks a significant turn in one of the most controversial military corruption cases of Nigeria’s democratic era.
About the Author
