Ekitigate: Army fires Momoh, ex- spokesman, others

The Nigerian Army Council has retired two senior officers,
Brig.-Gen. Aliyu Momoh, who was indicted in the conduct of
the 2015 elections in Ekiti State; the former spokesman of the
Nigerian Army, Brig.-Gen. Olajide Laleye, and other officers.
It was learnt on Sunday that the retirement of the senior
officers was in connection with the recommendations of the
panel set up by the Army authorities to look into allegations of
professional misconduct against military personnel in the
conduct of the June 14, 2014 governorship poll in Ekiti State
and the 2015 general elections.
The panel was also directed to investigate the roles played by
the military officers who participated in the August, 2014
governorship election in Osun State.
After the results of the Ekiti governorship election was
released, where the candidate of the Peoples Democratic
Party, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, was declared the winner, there
were allegations that the Army personnel deployed in the
state, led by Momoh, played active roles in an alleged rigging
of the poll.
An officer of the Nigerian Army, Capt. Sagir Koli, who
participated in the supervision of the poll, had leaked an audio
recording of a meeting, featuring Fayose, Momoh, former
Minister of State for Defence, Musliu Obanikoro; former
Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Jelili Adesiyan; and the PDP
governorship candidate in Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore,
among others, where the alleged rigging was hatched.
The individuals had stridently denied the rigging allegations.
The former Director, Army Public Relations, Laleye, who later
became the Commander, 4th Brigade of the Nigerian Army,
addressed the press on the controversy over the secondary
school certificate of the then presidential candidate of the All
Progressives Congress, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
He had said the Army could not find the results of the West
African School Certificate Examination of Buhari, who was
Nigeria’s military Head of State between January 1, 1984 and
August, 1985.
Buhari, who was contesting the presidential election as the
candidate of the APC, had claimed, while submitting his
nomination forms to the Independent National Electoral
Commission in 2014, that his WASCE result was in the
custody of the Army.
The Acting Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman,
confirmed that “Gen. Momoh and others have been retired
from the Army”.
The Army spokesman did not give further details of the
retirement.
Investigation, however, revealed that the Army council met in
February to consider the recommendations of the panel, set
up by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, to
investigate allegations of professional misconduct against its
personnel in the last elections.
The Board of Inquiry, led by the General Officer Commanding,
1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Maj. Gen. Adeniyi
Oyebade, indicted some officers and recommended various
degrees of sanctions for them in a report submitted to the
Army chief on January 11, 2016.
The Oyebade-led panel recommended the compulsory
retirement of two officers from the Army, three others for loss
of command and one for prosecution for receiving financial
gratification.
The panel recommended 15 officers to be put on the watch
list and nine officers for investigation by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission.
Also, the panel said ‘‘six officers should face an audit panel
and 62 officers (mostly of the rank of Major and below)
should be given Letters of Displeasure and to appear before
their respective GOCs for counselling.’’
Oyebade had said 23 officers, over 100 soldiers and 62
civilians appeared before the panel which was constituted on
October 20, 2015 “to investigate the alleged unprofessional
and unethical conduct of some Nigerian Army personnel in
Ekiti and Osun states’ governorship election in 2014 as well as
in any other state in Nigeria, where other allegations of
misconduct were made during the 2015 general elections”.
Part of the committee’s terms of reference include Ekitigate: Army fires Momoh, ex-
spokesman, others