Akubo, 62, was among the 175 persons who recently received a
presidential pardon and other forms of clemency following the approval of the
national council of state.

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on
information and strategy, said in a statement on Saturday that Tinubu commuted
Akubo’s life sentence to 20 years’ imprisonment “following good conduct and
remorsefulness”.

In 2007, Akubo and other senior soldiers were accused of
selling military weapons at the depots of the Nigerian Army located at the
Command and Staff College, Jaji, and the One Base Ordnance, Kaduna.

The military weapons were said to have been sold to the
Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), a militant group.

The weapons included assault rifles, submachine guns and
rocket-propelled grenades.

In November 2008, a military court in Kaduna sentenced Akubo
and five other soldiers to life imprisonment for selling military weapons that
were stolen between January 2000 and December 2006 to militants.

Bala Usara, the military judge, had said that the buyers of
the stolen weapons include Sunny Okah, brother of Henry Okah, the leader of
MEND.

The stolen weapons were valued at N100 million at the time
of the theft.

In July 2016, MEND said the federal government has agreed to
review Akubo’s and five others’ life sentences under the presidential amnesty
programme (PAP).