were found guilty by a military court that sat in Abuja on Monday.
The 9-member court martial sentenced 12 of the convicted soldiers to death by firing squad for mutiny, one was jailed for 28 days with hard labour, while five were discharged and acquitted.
Those discharged were Naaman Samuel, Iseh Ubong, David Robert, Mohammed Sani and Sebastine Gwaba, while Jer
emiah Echocho was sentenced to 28 days with hard labour.
Those sentenced to death were Jasper Braidolor, David Musa, Friday Onuh, Yusuf Shuaibu, Igonmu Emmanuel, Andrew Ugbede, Nurudeen Ahmed, Ifeanyi Alukagba, Alao Samuel, Amadi Chukwuma, Alan Linus, and Stephen Clement.
The soldiers were charged with six count of criminal conspiracy to commit mutiny, disobeying lawful orders as well as various acts inimical to the military service.
The Court Martial was headed by Major General Major General C.C. Okonkwo.
They found the soldiers guilty of insubordinate behaviour, use of abusive language, leveling false accusation against their superior officers, among
others.
The legal team that defended the convicts had pleaded with the court martial to “temper justice with mercy” after narrating the pathetic stories of the family
backgrounds of the convicted servicemen to the Court Martial team.
One of the convicted was said to be the only son of his 80-year-old widowed mother, another a father of a five- month-old baby.
The defence team in their argument prayed that giving them maximum sentence would do more harm than good, pleading that it would increase the agony of their dependants.
However, they were found guilty of attempting to kill their erstwhile General Officer Commanding, 7 Division, Major General Ahmed Mohammed, by shooting at his official car between May 13 and 14, 2014.
They were found guilty of three out of the six count charges against them, which are conspiracy, mutiny and attempted murder of Major General Mohammed.
The incident took place at the Maimalari Barracks, Maiduguri in the course of the ongoing counter insurgency campaign.
The Maimalari Cantonment is the headquarters of 7 Division, the newest Division of the Nigerian Army.
The court also found them guilty of preventing the movement of some of their injured colleagues to hospital and obstructing evacuation of their dead
colleagues who were killed in ambush on their way from an operation in Chibok, Borno State
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