The Nigerian Military Court Martial sitting in Maiduguri, Borno State on Tuesday dismissed Flight Lieutenant Martins Owerem of the Nigerian Air Force for raping a 14-year-old displaced girl.
The President of the Court, Major General Yakubu Auta, held that the court found Owerem the guilty on the two counts rape and assault.
The convict was charged with defilement, assault and disobedience to standing order.
Auta held that the prosecution, through five witnesses and four exhibits, had proved its case beyond reasonable doubts.
He held that the court found the officer guilty on the first and second-count charge, while it discharge and acquitted him on the third count charge.
The judge, therefore, ordered for dismissal from service of the convict on the first count charge and sentenced him to demotion by one rank on the second-count charge.
Earlier, the Judge Advocate, Captain Aminu Mairuwa, told the court that the convict on September 29, 2018, while on patrol duty at Kawon Jiya community on the outskirts of Maiduguri, arrested some girls, who were collecting firewood, on the pretext that they crossed into the restricted area.
Mairuwa argued that the convict took one of the girls into the bush and raped her.
However, Defence Counsel, Abbas Abba, sought for leniency in view of the selfless service and contributions of the convict in the counter insurgency campaign.