Supreme Court affirms 7-yr jail term for Army Major - For having sex with 3 boys

Eric Ikhilae, Lagos - 14.03.2008

THE Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction and seven years jail term handed about three years ago to an officer of the Nigerian Army, Major Bello M. Magaji, by an Army court-martial for having sex with three secondary school boys.

Nigerian Tribune learnt on Thursday that the army officer was jailed after a legal battle that lasted about four years.

What informed the conviction of the army officer started sometime in 2004, when Magaji was arraigned before a court-martial constituted by the military command, then headed by Brigadier-General Patrick Aziza.

The victims are three secondary school boys from Army Cantonment Boys Secondary School, Ojo. They were lured by one of their friends, Augustine Oscar Ayewa, an errand boy of Major Magaji.

The victims told the court how the accused officer had sex with them through the anus.

The general court-martial convicted Major Magaji and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment. His case was dismissed at the Court of Appeal.

Dissatisfied, he went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision read by Justice Niki Tobi, said the appeal involved the “beastly, barbaric and bizarre offence of sodomy (commonly referred to as homosexuality)”and dismissed the appeal.