Bello Magaji
When a court convicts individuals for offences and sentences them to prison as punishment, it is expected that they immediately serve their time in jail.
But in his case, as this PREMIUM TIMES investigation found, Bello Magaji, a former military officer, never served his five-year prison sentence for sodomy imposed by the General Court Martial (GCM), a conviction later upheld by the Supreme Court.
Instead, former President Goodluck Jonathan granted him a presidential pardon many years after the conviction was affirmed by the Supreme Court. The Nigerian Army also changed his dismissal record to voluntary resignation, gave him a certificate of military service, and restored to him all entitlements for retired military officers.
Mr Magaji went ahead to further his education, secure teaching jobs in higher institutions in Nigeria and Uganda, and only last year became the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, Adamawa State. The university, where he serves as an associate professor and recently the Dean of Faculty of Law, said it was not aware of the conviction and is looking into it.
