Tinubu Grants Clemency to Army Major Jailed for Selling Weapons to Militants

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has granted clemency to Major Suleiman Alabi Akubo, a Nigerian Army officer sentenced to life imprisonment for selling thousands of stolen weapons to Niger Delta militants.

Akubo, now 62, was among 175 individuals who received presidential pardons and sentence reductions recently approved by the National Council of State.

According to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Tinubu commuted Akubo’s sentence from life imprisonment to 20 years, citing the officer’s “good conduct and demonstrated remorse” during incarceration.

Major Akubo was convicted in 2008 by a military tribunal in Kaduna alongside five other soldiers for diverting over 7,000 weapons from the Nigerian Army’s depots at the Command and Staff College, Jaji, and the One Base Ordnance, Kaduna.

The arms — including assault rifles, submachine guns, and rocket-propelled grenades — were sold to the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and were valued at approximately ₦100 million at the time.

During the trial, Justice Bala Usara noted that among the buyers was Sunny Okah, brother of MEND leader Henry Okah.

In 2016, MEND claimed the Federal Government had agreed to review the life sentences of Akubo and others under the Presidential Amnesty Programme, though the process did not materialise until now.