When Chinagoro (aka
African China), a popular Nigerian
musician released his album titled ‘Mr. President’ in 2005, it was as if he saw
tomorrow. Part of the lyrics of the song read: “…Poor man wey thief magi Omo,
dem go show im face for crime fighter [crime fighter]; Rich man wey thief money
Omo, we no dey see their face for crime fighter…”and so on. It was like a joke
and people while dancing to the melodious rhythm rarely pondered on the
embedded message which the song represented.
Each passing day,
the unfolding events in Nigeria vis-vis the fight against corruption bring the
reality of the music to stare and mock us in the face like a lunatic. Yet, we
pretend that all is well.
Not too long ago, one
of the eight civil servants accused of complicity in the illegal diversion of
over N40 billion from the Nigeria Police Pension Funds, Mr. John Yakubu Yusufu,
(former Director in the Police Pension office) who confessed to the charges of
connivance with the others to steal about N23 billion was sentenced to only two
years imprisonment with an option of N750,000 fine. This court judgment
attracted public outcry, but the apologists of Justice Abubakar
Talba of Abuja High Court, Gudu District who delivered the controversial
judgment rallied support for their principal, albeit, not on moral
grounds, but on the grounds of technical defects in our constitution. For them,
he acted within the ambits of the law. For most discerning Nigerians, that was
not the first of its kind and will certainly not be the last where a corrupt
official will be handed down a ludicrous penalty for looting the national
coffers.
What baffled many
Nigerians is the case of a certain 31-year-old Kelvin Ighodalo who was recently
sentenced to 45 years imprisonment for stealing a Sony Ericsson phone belonging
to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State. This sentence drew the irk of the public
as analyst now ask the question: ‘Between Aregbesola’s phone and the national
treasury, which one is more sacred? Has the law which gave Yusufu, the pension
fraudster a ridiculous sentence for stealing from the national treasury changed
over night or are there laws for the rich and yet another for the poor?
Ighodalo according
to the allegation, stole a phone estimated to be worth N50,000 from Aregbesola on November 27, 2010, when the governor was being inaugurated at
Government Technical College, Osogbo. In the case of Ighodalo the GSM thief,
Justice Oyejide Falola of Osogbo High Court who presided over the case found
him guilty on six counts, which included conspiracy, stealing and fraud and
therefore sentenced him to 10-year imprisonment for the first three counts and
five years for each of the last three which included impersonation, obtaining
property by falsehood and collusion. The jail term is to run concurrently
implying that Ighodalo will spend the next 10 years behind bars.
Justifying the
judgment, Falola, who ruled that Ighodalo deserved the jail term, held that the
convict used the phone to obtain N500, 000 from the Owa of Ilesa, Oba Adekunle
Aromolaran, while he obtained N200, 000 from Mr Shengen Rahman, an associate of
the governor.
On his part, Yusuf
voluntarily confessed to stealing from the Police pension fund, a whopping
N23Billion and as penalty, he bagged a fine of N750,000 as an alternative to 2
years imprisonment. Who is fooling who?
While this act is
condemnable, it is instructive to note that thousands, if not millions of
retired police officers died without receiving their pensions. Many police
officers lost loved ones, prestige, dignity and unquantifiable valuables as a
result of unpaid pensions and yet, the crime was not viewed in the eyes of the
law and its interpreters as heinous enough to attract more excruciating
penalties.
Mr. John Yakubu
Yusufu’s case sighted here is even a tip of the iceberg. What about those
public officials who still walk free on the streets with every paraphernalia of
Very Importance Personality (VIP) in the society. Some are serving members of
the national Assembly while others are occupying one executive position or the
other.
The case of former police Inspector General,
Tafa Balogun will always remain a celebrated case study where the cancerous
concept of plea bargaining ridiculed our judicial system and the much touted
war against corruption. Balogun was said to have incorporated some companies to
loot the police treasury through bribes and kickbacks on contracts. Billions of
naira were fraudulently withdrawn by him from the police account and
transferred to the companies to buy shares andanded properties and foreign
currency. During his trial, the Judge, Justice Binta Nyako in her judgment said
she considered the fact that Balogun was a “first offender” and had “shown
remorse” throughout the trial. “I hereby sentence the accused to a term of six
months’ imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 naira (3,846 US dollars) on each of
the eight charges against him,” said Nyako. Before Nigerians could spell ‘jack’
Balogun was out of jail, his term of less than six months already served out of
which 67 days already spent in detention during the trial was deducted. Can a
poor Nigerian receive this kind of treatment? The answer is, to avoid an error
of over generalization, ‘rare’.
If anyone ever thought
Balogun’s case was flabbergasting, that person erred in judgment as Cecilia Ibru’s case was even more
astonishing. She was the former Managing Director/Chief Executive
Officer of Oceanic Bank International Plc. She was found culpable of embezzling
billions of Naira with which she acquired property at choice places almost the
world over in 2010. Mrs. Ibru was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in a plea
bar. Unike Balogun, who even spent about six months in the prison, Ibru never
saw the fore walls of any prison. She was convicted to serve six months each on
a three-count charge after the withdrawal of all the charges with the exception
of the three charges which were counts 14, 17 and 23 to which she pleaded
guilty but she served her jail in a special hospital and not in the prison, a privilege
that no ordinary citizen of this country can ever dream of receiving.
How about Lucky
Igbinedion was governor of Edo from 1999-2007? He was charged with embezzling
2.9 billion naira and he pleaded guilty to one count of corruption in a plea
bargain at a Federal High Court in Enugu. He was fined to refund about 500
million and forfeit three properties which included one in the capital Abuja.
This was all he got for draining the public coffers to the tune of N2.9billion.
DSP Diepreye
Alamieyeseigha, former governor of Bayelsa State was sentenced to two years imprisonment
for financial crimes against his state in July 2007 under a plea bargain
arrangement. Much to the chagrin of many Nigerians, he served for only a few
months as he was said to have been in detention since December 2005. Few months
ago, he was granted presidential pardon by President Goodluck Jonathan who,
without mincing words acknowledged him as his political mentor. Only in Nigeria
can these things happen in such a reckless abandon. Millions are languishing in
awaiting trial detention custodies and yet, they have not received judgment
fair or foul. Many were in detention for more than the attainable jail term for
their offences and yet, they are made to face the full weight of the law when
they finally get judgment just because they are ‘ordinary’ citizens.
It could be
recalled that before Ibori’s conviction in UK, a Nigerian Court in Asaba, Delta
State headed by Justice Marcel Awokulehin had dismissed all the charges brought
against the former governor only for him to be found guilty of the same charges
by a court in the UK. James Ibori was governor of Delta State between May 1999
and May 2007. He admitted 10 counts of conspiracy to fraud and money laundering
and was sentenced under a plea bargain arrangement.
The point being
drawn from all these is that our judicial system which is inundated with
selective justice system must be reviewed with a view to ensuring that what is
good for the goose is also good for the gander. Our priorities must be set
right such that national interest takes its rightful place in the scheme
things. Between Aregbesola’s phone and the national treasury which is being
wantonly looted with impunity, we must ask ourselves, which one is more sacred
to be desecrated?
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