The Army Officers’ Mess, Asokoro, Abuja, was like a bee hive, on Tuesday, as the trial of the former General Officer Commanding, 8 Division, Sokoto State, Major General Hakeem Otiki got under way.
General Otiki is facing a General Court Martial, presided over by the army’s Chief of Policy and Plans, Nigerian Army Headquarters, Major General Lamidi Adeosun, over alleged diversion of a staggering sum of N400 million by some soldiers in the division.
But as the trial started, General Otiki, through his counsel, Okechukwu Adinu, asked the president of the court martial, General Adeosun, to recuse himself because of matters that may crop up in the course of the trial which would make him an interested party.
On July 21, this year, the Nigerian Army had begun quizzing the former GOC over the missing N400 million alleged to have been salted away by escort soldiers in the division.
The trial of General Otiki came on the heels of an intense interrogation by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI), the Special Intelligence Bureau (SIB), and the Nigerian Army Corps of Military Police.
The allegation was that five soldiers made away with a consignment containing the money while on an escort duty from Sokoto to Kaduna states in the first week of July, 2019.
The whopping sum was said to have been earmarked for delivery to a Very Important Personality (VIP) in Kaduna.
When the story broke, Lieutenant Audu Arigu, spokesman of the in 8 Division of the Nigerian Army, had confirmed the heist, and revealed that investigation was already ongoing.
He identified suspects in the theft as Corporal Gabriel Oluwaniyi, Corporal Mohammed Aminu, one Corporal Haruna, Oluji Joshua and one Hayatudeen.
Before they spoke with their legs, the thieving soldiers were alleged to have turned in their rifles and mobile phones at the Infantry Corps in Jaji, Kaduna State. And General Otiki was said to have been undergoing a course at the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, ASCON, Badagry, Lagos State.
At a July 23, 2019 press conference, the Defence Headquarters had assured the media that it would not delay in making public the outcome of the investigation on the former GOC.
On Tuesday, the military made good its promise as it began the general court martial of General Otiki.