President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved a presidential pardon for Major Suleiman Alabi Akubo, a Nigerian Army officer previously sentenced to life imprisonment for illegally selling thousands of military weapons to Niger Delta militants.
Gossip News Now reports that Major Akubo, aged 62, was among the 175 inmates who received clemency following the National Council of State’s recent approval of pardons and sentence reductions.
In a statement released on Saturday, Presidential Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, revealed that Major Akubo’s life sentence had been reduced to 20 years.
According to Onanuga, the leniency was granted in recognition of Akubo’s “good conduct and remorsefulness” while in custody.
“His sentence was commuted from life imprisonment to 20 years following his demonstration of repentance and good behaviour,” Onanuga stated.
Major Akubo was accused in 2007, alongside several other senior officers, of illegally selling over 7,000 weapons stored at the Nigerian Army Command and Staff College, Jaji, and the One Base Ordnance Depot, Kaduna.
Investigations revealed that the stolen assault rifles, submachine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades were sold to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) — a militant group notorious for attacks on oil installations and kidnappings in the early 2000s.
In November 2008, a military court in Kaduna found Akubo and five other soldiers guilty of illegal arms dealing between January 2000 and December 2006.
Delivering judgment, Presiding Military Judge Bala Usara disclosed that the arms were sold to individuals linked to Sunny Okah, brother of Henry Okah, MEND’s leader at the time.
The stolen weapons were valued at approximately ₦100 million when the offences were committed.
In July 2016, MEND claimed that the federal government had agreed to review the life sentences of Akubo and his co-convicts as part of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP) — a gesture aimed at promoting national reconciliation.
With Tinubu’s recent approval, Major Akubo’s sentence has now been officially reduced, offering him a path to eventual release after serving the majority of his new term.
