By Lillian Okenwa
Following the Court of Appeal, Abuja’s recent sustaining of Abdulrasheed Maina’s conviction and eight-year sentence, public affairs analysts are again questioning the rationale behind a man stealing 2.1 billion naira and he is sentenced to only 8 years in prison with most of his loot left with him, while the same legal system sentences another to death for armed robbery for stealing a mere fraction of that enormous sum stolen by high-profile criminals.
As has been said, however, the first man is an executive robber and the second a common thief, who is most probably a victim of the thievery of the first!!
On October 25, 2019, the former Chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina who was convicted of laundering about N2.1 billion was arraigned on 12-count charges alongside his son, Faisal, on three-count charges bordering on money laundering and concealment of proceeds of unlawful act.
But notwithstanding that by Section 17 of the 1999 Constitution, citizens were entitled to equal rights and opportunities, it has been different applications of the justice system for the rich and the poor.
In January this year, an Akwa Ibom State High Court in Okoita, Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area, sentenced two tricycle robbers to 28 years in prison. Nsikan Friday Tom, 28, and Augustine Gregory, 27, were sentenced for robbing a passenger while trying to board a tricycle at Okokon Etuk Street in Uyo. The duo robbed their victim of his Lenovo laptop and Gionee M5 phone on August 7, 2016.
A much more spectacular verdict was delivered by Hon. Justice Kenneth Okpe of the Enugu State High Court. He sentenced one Emmanuel Sombo, an accountant with the Federal College of Education, Eha-Amufu, to a whopping 304 years in prison for theft of N34.9 million belonging to the college.
Emmanuel Sombo was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 61-count charge of fraud and other allied crimes. He was accused of forging the signatures of the institution’s principal officers on promissory notes to cash monies running into N34 million from the college’s First Bank account for his personal use.
A few years ago, also, a Federal High Court in Jos, Plateau state capital sentenced a 26-year-old man, Obinna John, to death by hanging for robbing a woman of N1,705. The convict was also said to have robbed his victim, Mrs. Dorothy Olaniyi, of two rolls of sachet peak milk, valued at N400.
The prosecution counsel, Mr. G. D. Fwonyon, of Plateau State Deputy Director of Public Prosecution, told the court that John, in the company of an accomplice, also named John, now at large, on November 18, 2005, robbed the woman, in her shop, at gunpoint.
The presiding Hon. Justice Yargata Nimpa in his 60-page judgment said the evidence before the court had shown that the accused committed the offence and sentenced John to death by hanging.
Meanwhile, President Muhamamdu has since granted a state pardon to ex-Governor Joshua Dariye of the same Plateau State. The Court of Appeal in Abuja had reduced his jail term from 14 to 10 years.
After reducing the sentence of 14 years to 10 years for criminal breach of trust, the Court of Appeal reduced the ex-Governor’s conviction for diversion of N1. 62 billion ecological funds from two years to one year. The sentences were to run concurrently.
Similarly, the six-month imprisonment of Tafa Balogun, a former Inspector General of Police (IGP), for corruption and money laundering comes to mind. So does the two-year imprisonment of ex-governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State for corruption and money laundering. Former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion was charged with stealing up to N4.4 billion. But in a ruling given by a judge at the Federal High Court, Enugu, Igbinedion was fined only a paltry N3.5 million or serve months in jail for looting the Edo State treasury for over 8 years.
The former IGP Tafa Balogun who was convicted in late 2005 had over N5 billion meant for the police in his private accounts and over ten properties across the globe worth over $20 million. All these he acquired as a serving officer. After his conviction following a 70-count charge that included theft of about N20 billion ($133 million) of police funds, he was sentenced to six months in prison. Most of it was served at the Abuja National Hospital.
Not long ago, an Upper Area Court in Gwagwalada, Abuja, sentenced a 19-year-old student, Hillary Yunana, to four months imprisonment for stealing five packs of noodles from a shop, while an Ogun State magistrate court sentenced 49-year-old Mustapha Adesina to two years in prison for stealing vegetables valued at N5,000 with an option of N10,000 fine.
A woman in Suleja prison in Niger State on awaiting trial for over two years was reportedly forced to live in prison with her six children, for stealing a goat.
A former President of the Civil Liberties Organisation, Ayo Obe once explained: “It is the armed robbery element that attracted the (mandatory) death penalty, rather than the amount stolen. Privileged thieves arm themselves with pens and computers, but oddly enough, these are not considered weapons …”
Now more than ever is time to reform the criminal justice system. Now more than ever is time for the Nigerian Law Reform Commission (NLRC) on whose shoulders rest the reform and update of obsolete laws, to rise up to its responsibility to do the needful.
The two basic legislations that deal with crime in Nigeria are the Criminal Code (applicable to the southern states in Nigeria) and the Penal Code (applicable in the 19 northern states). These two legislations promulgated in 1902 and 1960, respectively, have become very obsolete. From 1999, EFCC, and ICPC, among others, were added to criminal justice. These agencies however focus on corruption-induced matters. The time has come for our obsolete laws to be amended. It is extremely sad that the 9th National Assembly set to exit in the coming month has done very little in this area.
