PLEA BARGAIN OR DAYLIGHT ROBBERRY
The other day I visited a journalist friend of many years and was rather shocked to find my friend literally inhospitable. The introductory “hows” went well as usual. But as our conversation sauntered down the sloppy roads of Nigerian politics, my friend minced no words to let me know how much he derided lawyers and Nigerian Judiciary. So emotional was my friend that he even forgot to see me off as he used to.
The crux of the argument was the ruling of Justice Abubakar Talba that sentenced John Yusuf Yakubu,the Pension-Fund ex-convict, to two years imprisonment with an option for fine. And the journalist was so mad that he could have none of my attempts to clarify some misconceptions, which in my opinion betrayed the lay man in him. Forget that journalists are universally notorious for embellishing facts, just to sell many copies and often complicit, too complicit for that matter, in the loot that goes behind doors. But I do not blame him, for apart from bare naivity of his take on issues with passion, there was honesty in his justified anger. And it is only fair that I recognise that.
Justice Talba might be complicit in the light sentence that he gave the culprit, but EFCC is all to be blamed for charging the accused under the Penal Code Act of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. EFCC arraigned John Yakubu Yusuf and others on 22-Count-Charge, to which he entered plea bargain for 19 and pleaded guilty to the remaining three. And as the concept goes, the other charges were dropped and he was convicted on the three that he had pleaded guilty to. Each of the three carries a punishment of two years, with or without option for fine. Now, here is where my suspicion of complicity came in. Justice Talba could have sentenced Yusuf to six years imprisonment to run consecutively and without the option of fine, given the gravity of the offences. This he did not do, but went down the gutter with his ridiculous concurrent sentencing with option of fine of N250,000!
But you do not blame Justice Talba alone,you blame the system that accommodates “plea bargain”, that dubious concept that allows criminals go scot free,swinging their arms in their loot, with little or no blemish at all. I, sometimes, feel of democracy as responsible for the mess we see around us much as I see our incompetent politicians responsible for it. But at others, I see these strange concepts, strange indeed, as shackles to development and accommodative of corruption. You dare not to approach Chinese with this strange concept of “plea bargain”! But here,the corrupt Executive, accomplice Legislature and a complicit Judiciary, welcomed it with both hands.
Perhaps it is high time we went back to our customary laws against stealing, oh is it misappropriation you call it, and made the necessary changes to safeguard our treasuries. I never bought this concept of plea bargain. I have always seen it as a way of domesticating graft and impunity. People that could have gone down for their lives elsewhere are walking our streets freely, courtesy of plea bargain. Olabode George,Tafa Balogun, Saminu Turaki, Igbenedion Lucky, Cecilia Ibru, a certain Erastus Akinbola et cetra, et cetra are all people that coud have been cooling their feet in prison elsewhere. But we live in a country where plea bargain can easily exculpate one of all his blemish with just a return of few millions to the government. How sad.
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