Appeal Court stops army from retiring General Sani

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has stopped the retirement of Major General Ibrahim Sani by the Nigerian Army.

A three member panel of justices led by Justice Datti Yahaya yesterday directed the Nigerian Army not to retire the applicant until the determination of the suit before the court.

“He has not reached the age of retirement. You demoted him from Major General to Brigadier General. Don’t retire him yet. Allow us to determine the matter first,” the judge said.

The ruling of the court followed a motion for stay filed by Sani through his counsel, Paul Sule challenging the decision of the Special Court Martial set up by the Chief of Army Staff, which on July 20 convicted him and was purportedly affirmed by the Army Council on November 4.

At the resumed hearing, Sule informed the court that he has filed two motions; one of them dated December 4, 2017 seeking leave to enable the applicant appeal against the judgement of the Special Court Martial and another dated December 6, 2017 seeking to stay execution of the judgement of the court martial.

Justice Yahaya struck out the application after it was withdrawn by the applicant’s lawyer.

The judge fixed January 17 for ruling on the application for stay of execution dated December 6, 2017.