A Lieutenant Colonel of the Nigerian Army, Kingsley Iberi, is currently down with stroke and paralysis after 14 years of waiting for his entitlements which have not come.
It was learnt that 63-year-old Iberi, who hails from Igbanke, Edo State, joined the army in January 1972 as a Cadet Officer, having finished from the Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna State. His first place of posting was 24 Infantry Battalion in Gboko, Benue State.
Our correspondent gathered that Iberi, who rose to the rank of a Lieutenant Colonel in December 1990, was, however, dismissed from the army in 1998 after a court martial, which his family described as a shoddy process.
He was tried by the army for conspiracy, cheating and impersonation, which Iberi claimed he knew nothing about.
It was learnt that in 2002, Iberi filed an appeal against his dismissal at the Federal Court of Appeal, Lagos, and the court ruled in February 2013 that Iberi should be reinstated in the army while his entitlements from 1998, when he was wrongfully dismissed, be paid to him.
However, the family claimed that the Nigerian Army had yet to obey the court judgment.
In a copy of the judgment dated February 22, 2013, and presided over by Justices Ibrahim Saulawa, Joseph Ikyegh and Rita Pemu, the court martial verdict was declared invalid, and Iberi was asked to be reinstated and paid his full entitlements.
The paper, with Appeal Number, CA/L/736M/2009, reads, “Having perused the briefs of the argument of the learned counsel to the respective parties, I hereby concur to the effect that the present appeal is meritorious. The judgment of the court martial, delivered on May 26, 1998, is hereby set aside for being perverse.
“The conviction and sentence passed upon the appellant stand quashed. The appellant is accordingly discharged and acquitted. I abide by the consequential order reinstating the appellant into the Nigerian Army with immediate effect.”
Speaking on Wednesday, Iberi’s third son, Charles, said despite the court of appeal’s judgment which mandated the reinstatement of his father and payment of his entitlements, efforts to get the attention of the military headquarters to obey the ruling had failed.
He said, “We took a letter, through our family lawyer, Fred Agbaje, to the 81 Division, Nigeria Army, in Victoria Island in February 2014, but we have not received any response.
“The Nigerian Armed Forces Resettlement Centre, Cappa, in Oshodi, Lagos, was the last place daddy served before the hazy court martial judgment was passed. We were directed to take a letter there too and attach the court of appeal’s ruling, which we also did. For 14 years now, he has been living without any entitlement. The pressure of the whole process made my father to suffer a stroke. The expenses of his treatment alone are killing the family.
“We want the military authorities to look into this matter and honour the court judgment, reinstate and pay all my father’s entitlements.”
It was also learnt that Iberi, who was diagnosed of stroke and paralysis in June 2006, has patient’s cards at the Aburime-Changsu Oriental Diagnostic Hospital, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, (a Nigeria-Korea Acupuncture Centre), and the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where he visits for treatment.
A medical report obtained by our correspondent and signed by one Prof. Sun from Aburime-Changsu, reads, “This is to certify that Mr. Iberi Kingsley is a patient of this hospital. He was presented to us on June 26, 2006 during which he was managed for Diabetes Melitus, Hypertension, Partial Stroke and Paralysis. He is still undergoing treatment with us.”
When our correspondent visited Iberi on Wednesday, the sexagenarian, who now uses a stand-up lift to stand and walk, said since age could not allow him return to service, the authorities of the Nigerian Army should pay his entitlements as the court had ruled since 2013.
He said, “I was not just wrongfully dismissed from the army, I was made to serve a two-year jail term at a Military Police Cell in Apapa. It was when I came out that I filed the appeal, and the court ruled that both the court martial judgment and the term I served were invalid, and I should be reinstated and paid my entitlements.
“I developed this illness as a result of the shock that my entitlements stopped suddenly and my family would have to live in penury. As I speak with you, my wife sells in Oshodi so that the family can survive. The last salary I was paid was in June 1997 before the hasty judgment. I want the authorities to implement the court ruling and pay me all my entitlements.”
It was gathered that the Commandant of the NARFC in Oshodi, Air vice Marshal M.R. Morgan, acknowledged the receipt of Iberi’s letter with the court judgment on May 15, 2014, and passed the same to the Directorate of Administration for onward action.
However, the Iberis had not heard any development since May.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. General Olajide Laleye, told our correspondent on the phone that the court judgment would undergo some due processes at the army’s legal department.
He added that it was wrong of Iberi to have taken his plight to the media because the media neither employed him nor dismissed him.
He said, “It is quite strange that an officer would start talking about what happened to him to the press. Why is the officer going about to complain about what is entirely a Nigerian Army affair?
“If a court has passed a judgment; the court knows how to send the judgment to the Nigerian Army. When the judgment gets here, it goes to the legal privacy. There is a procedure to be followed. The court has already given a judgment and we know what to do in respect of it. The army must follow it own procedures in respect of what the court has passed.” – Punch.
