Why I Sued Nigeria Army – Reinstated General

An Army General forced to quit service in 2016 was on Tuesday re-instated by the National Industrial Court sitting in Abuja.

While reacting to his reinstatement, retired Brigadier-General Abubakar Sa’ad has explained why he sued the Nigerian Army even when there are internal mechanism established within the service to look into complaints by officers.

THE WHISTLER earlier reported that the Court ordered the Nigerian Army to reinstate Sa’ad who was given compulsory retirement in 2016 based on service exigencies.

The court further ordered that all his rights be given to him from when he was compulsorily retired to 2019 when his service in NA would have ended.

Speaking to newsmen after the court verdict, Sa’ad said that although the Army has internal organs that hears and looks into complaints of officers, his case was not attended to or acknowledged.

He said that he had to go to court when it became clear to him that the Nigeria Army and its leadership would not hear him out.

“Justice, they said, it does not matter how late. We have been on the case for five years, but finally Justice has come and that is the fact, that my retirement was illegal , unconditional and it was done in bad faith.

“Let me just say that the military is one institution that recognizes the fact that a superior could be wrong and that is why within its internal processes, it has always made provisions for people who have been wrong to seek redress.

“So there is a provision for redress within the system. If a subordinate feels he has being wronged by his superior, what he needs to do is to write a redress to the next appropriate authority but then he has to channel it through his immediate Commander.

“So you see that military actually recognizes seeking for redress but if it is the system that has wronged an individual then that means you have to seek redress outside the system,” he said.

Sa’ad urged junior army officers to report any injustice meted to them to the appropriate quarters and through the right channel but he further admonished them to consider the court as their last resort if they feel shortchanged by the system.

He said he wrote an appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, given several reasons why he was not the kind of person that will accept his illegal retirement and injustice done to him.

He claimed that before he approached the court, he had written letters to the Chief of Defence Staff stating that he was wrongly retired.

He said that his letters were not acknowledged.

“I went to court, after exhausting the internal avenue within the system.

“I am one senior officer who has always encouraged my subordinates, saying that if I am wrong, seek redress, nobody is perfect.

“It has been proven here that a system can be wrong.

“The Chief of Army Staff, Minister of Defense and Army Council went wrong in maliciously, illegally and wrongfully retiring me and that is what has been pronounced today.

“This things are actually good for the system because it protects the limits of systems and the evils that are done within the system,” he added.