Famend human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has cautioned the Federal Authorities towards the usage of army court-martials to strive officers and civilians allegedly concerned within the October 2025 plot to topple the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
Following current confirmations by the Defence Headquarters that 16 army officers and their civilian collaborators are set to face the music earlier than a army tribunal, Falana contended that such a transfer is a authorized inaccurate perception that contradicts the 1999 Structure.
He argued that whereas the army views the plot as an inner disciplinary matter, the intention to take away an elected President is a grave felony that falls strictly below the Prison Code Act.
Falana stated, “The alleged coup plotters can solely be tried below Part 41 of the Prison Code Act. This regulation stipulates that anybody desiring to depose the President throughout his time period of workplace is responsible of a felony and liable to life imprisonment.
“In a democratic dispensation, it is a matter for the Federal Excessive Courtroom, not a secret army panel.”
The Senior Advocate highlighted what he termed a historical past of obnoxious decrees utilized by previous army dictators, resembling Ibrahim Babangida, to execute rivals like Normal Mamman Vatsa.
He famous that the Treason and Treasonable Offences Decree No 29 of 1993, which beforehand empowered army tribunals, was repealed by Normal Abdulsalami Abubakar in 1999 to pave the best way for civil rule.
To help his stance, Falana cited key authorized milestones resembling Part 251(2) of the 1999 Structure which explicitly confers jurisdiction over treason and allied offences to the Federal Excessive Courtroom, the case of Umoru Mandara (1984) the place the Supreme Courtroom quashed a conviction as a result of the trial courtroom lacked correct jurisdiction, and a February 2025 ruling by the Supreme Courtroom of Uganda which held that army courts lack the jurisdiction to strive civilians, ordering all such trials to be moved to the civil system.
Falana identified that even the present President Bola Tinubu, when going through comparable fees in 1994, was charged on the Federal Excessive Courtroom, not a army barracks.
Falana urged the army authorities at hand over the case recordsdata to the Lawyer-Normal of the Federation (AGF) instantly.
“The plot to sack a civilian regime is just not a army affair. The Lawyer-Normal should research the file and file fees of treasonable felony on the Federal Excessive Courtroom.
“To do in any other case is to return to the darkish days of army decrees that don’t have any place in our present regulation,” Falana concluded.