Naval rating illegally detained on Army Brigadier’s Order in 2018, Abbas Haruna regains freedom

Abbas Haruna, a naval rating locked up in 2018 on a senior army officer’s order despite the Armed Forces Act (2004) limiting punishment for insubordination to two years imprisonment, has been released.

Ordinary Ahmed Isah, the founder of Brekete, a radio and television programme focused on human rights protection, announced this on Friday.

In the Brekete Family Live Programme live-streamed on its YouTube page, Isah said: “I have good and bad news. The good news is, even though they (the military) have not said it officially, Abbas has been released. And according to what I heard, they have dismissed him. The bad news is the dismissal.”

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This development came after the news of Haruna’s six-year detention went viral, and the House of Representatives Committee on Navy and the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) vowed to probe the matter.

It could be recalled that Hussaina Iliyasu, his wife, recently shared her husband’s plight on Brekete in the hope that her voice would be heard and her concerns addressed.

She said her husband’s troubles began in 2018, following a disagreement during a special operation in Taraba State under Brigadier MS Adamu’s command. After Haruna left the parade ground for prayers, Brigadier Adamu noticed his absence and, upon his return, ordered him to be disarmed, arrested and detained.

Narrating her ordeal in tears, she said “I will be with him no matter the situation. They have discharged him. He was ejected from the barracks. I love my husband. I love him,” she said while narrating their ordeal.

The naval officer and his wife appeared on the Brekete Family programme on Friday, with the wife breaking down in tears as she expressed her gratitude for her husband’s release.

FIJ