Cases involving highly placed persons linger in the courts, and often they get rulings that amount to a slap on the wrist. That is not the same with poor folks who languish in jail as awaiting trial persons before being handed maximum sentences.
Acting News Editor ISHAYA IBRAHIM investigates a justice system better described as cash and carry.
March 24 was unpalatable for three cattle thieves who had been on trial before Justice Lateefat Okunnu of the Ikeja High Court. For stealing 10 cows worth N100,000 each, they were jailed 14 years each without an option of fine, despite their plea for clemency.
Observers in the courtroom hailed the judgment as apt in its deterrent effect.
However, many were not impressed with the ruling of a Federal High Court in Benin on April 29, which sentenced Michael Igbinedion, younger brother of former Edo State Governor, Lucky Igbinedion, to six years in prison for N25 billion money laundering offence.
He was given an option of N3 million fine to avoid going to jail.
According to your pocket
The two cases typify the state of the Nigerian judiciary where the poor get the maximum sentence for a crime and the rich, a soft landing.
“There is an issue with our judiciary. And that is why the President (Muhammadu Buhari) mentioned in his inaugural speech that we must cleanse ourselves of the kind of odour we have,” said Monday Ubani, former Ikeja branch Chairman of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).
“When a trial involves one man who is alleged to steal chicken and yam, you will see how the judicial system will become effective and very efficient. They will not allow any unnecessary applications for adjournments and the case will be completed immediately and the maximum punishment imposed.
“But when it involves a big man in Nigeria, it is according to your pocket.”
In fact, an analyst said the big thieves steal enough to go round everyone, including those trying them in the courts.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Michael Igbinedion and Patrick Eboigbodin, an aide to Lucky Igbinedion, on 81 counts of money laundering during the tenure of Lucky.
Justice A.M. Liman found Michael Igbinedion guilty on counts 79, 80 and 81 and was given a fine of N3 million.
Eboigbodin was found guilty on counts 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58 and 59. He was sentenced to two years in prison without an option of fine because his offence has no provision for such.
Questionable court rulings
Big thieves getting away and small ones getting incarcerated is becoming the norm.
“There are decisions of the court in Nigeria that are very qualitative given by very sound judges. But there are times when you hear of some judgments you wonder what kind of judgments are these” Ubani lamented.
“For instance, the son of a prominent politician in Nigeria who was alleged to have stolen N25 billion and was asked to pay a fine of N3 million.
“Meanwhile, somebody who came from a very poor background was given judgment that amounted to several years of imprisonment. But it is the same case of stealing.
“There was also the pension thief who was asked to pay N750,000. Don’t forget that Lucky Igbinedion … was convicted of stealing several billions and asked to pay N3 million and go home.
“And we have many cases that have been lingering involving all these governors.”
Small thieves, maximum rulings
Kelvin Ighodalo, 31, got the wrath of the law on April 29, 2013 when he was convicted of stealing a Sony Ericson telephone worth N50,000 belonging to Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola.
Ighodalo stole the phone from the pocket of Aregbesola on November 27, 2010 when the governor was being inaugurated at Government Technical College, Osogbo.
Justice Oyejide Falola of the Osogbo High Court found him guilty on six counts, which included conspiracy, stealing, and fraud.
Ighodalo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the first three counts, and five years for each of the last three, which included impersonation, obtaining property by falsehood, and collusion.
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, Adekunle Aromolaran, and N200, 000 from Shengen Rahman, an associate of Aregbesola.
The jail term run concurrently, meaning Ighodalo would serve 10 years behind bars.
If his sentencing was huge, that of Oluremi Olayinka, an employee of Sweet Sensation is indescribable.
On April 22, 2015, an Abeokuta High Court sentenced Olayinka to 266 years imprisonment for stealing N8 million belonging to her employer.
Justice A.A. Akinyemi said the offence is contrary to Sections 390(6)(7)(8), 467 and 468 respectively of the Criminal Code Law Cap 29, Laws of Ogun State.
The court found Olayinka guilty of all the 34 charges. She was sentenced to seven years for each of 30 counts, and 14 years for four charges. The sentences run concurrently and she would, therefore, served 14 years.
Big thieves, minimum sentencing
However, highly connected persons have lighter sentences.
Igbinedion was in 2008 convicted of corruption charges. The initial counts the EFCC pressed against him were 191, but were later narrowed down to one after a plea bargain he entered with the EFCC.
He was convicted of the one charge that he “on or about January 21, 2008 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court neglected to make a declaration of your interest in the account number 4124013983110 with a new generation bank (name withheld) in the declaration of assets form of the EFCC, an offence punishable under Section 27 (3) of the EFCC Act 2008.”
Igbinedion pleaded guilty to the charge, and Justice Abdul Kafarati sentenced him to a fine of N3.5 million.
Cecilia Ibru, former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Oceanic International Bank, also got off lightly when a Federal High Court in Lagos found her guilty of mismanagement of depositors’ funds.
She was sentenced to 18 months in prison without an option of fine for the cumulative charges, which meant she would spend six months in jail. It was, however, in a high brow hospital rather than a prison facility.
Ibru was convicted of granting $20 million and N2 billion credit facilities above the limit set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Justice Dan Abutu ordered her to forfeit assets worth N191 billion, comprising 94 choice properties across the world, including the United States, Dubai, and Nigeria to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON).
She was also to forfeit shares in about 80 companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and 20 unlisted companies.
Ibru pleaded not guilty to 25 amended charges filed by the EFCC in February 2010, but pleaded guilty to counts 14, 17 and 23 of the amended charges before the ruling in October same year.
In January 2013, an Abuja High Court delivered a controversial ruling against John Yakubu, a former Deputy Director in the Police Pension Office, for stealing N32.8 billion pension funds.
His offence is punishable under Sections 97, 115 (ii), 119, 309 and 315 of the penal code.
Despite the huge sum involved, Justice Abubakar Talba fined Yakubu N250,000 for each of the three counts or spend two years in jail.
Yakubu pleaded guilty to counts 18, 19, and 20 in which he allegedly connived with other accused persons to convert N24.2 billion, N1.3 billion, and N1.7 billion belonging to the Pension Office for his own use.
Law requires urgent review
Constitutional lawyer and Voters Awareness Initiative (VAI) President, Wale Ogunade, said Nigeria’s outdated laws are responsible for the dichotomy in the judgments the rich and poor receive.
“These laws are old to the extent that they cannot put up with modern day reality. Salisu Buhari (former House of Representatives Speaker) got away with a slap on the wrist. And it is not the fault of our judges.
“It is the fault of the Parliament, because if the Parliament does not make laws to meet modern day reality, the lawyers and the judges will only work with what is on the ground,” Ogunade argued.
“Sometimes somebody commits an offence that is punishable by three months’ imprisonment. Because he doesn’t have a lawyer and doesn’t know how to fight for his right, he spends more than 10 years in jail.
“The big man steals money; gets a big lawyer and manipulates his way. We have a weak system that favours injustice. The legal system favours the ability to manipulate the system to your advantage.
“It is your ability to get a big lawyer who will make the offence look small. Poor people don’t have the financial wherewithal to get such lawyers. In essence, access to justice is for the big man. The poor man has no access to justice.”
Abdulaziz Ibrahim, a lawyer based in Kaduna, also insisted that some of the laws are belated.
Said he: “The penal code has not been amended in many states. I don’t know whether Kano has amended its own but some of the fines are in pounds. Kaduna has amended its penal code over time. But the fine is very insignificant.”
Ogunade added. “The extant laws are seriously defective. They are not in tandem with the modern day reality. I have been crying out loud that the laws we operate on are the laws of 1914. They are the laws given to us by Luggard.
“They are pre-colonial laws. When Nigeria became a colony in 1914, Luggard made them laws of Nigeria. What I am saying is that these laws are outdated.”
Ubani counselled that “we must allow the judiciary to be strengthened. We must ensure its financial autonomy so that it can perform effectively without looking at anybody’s face.
“We must look at the mode of appointment of judges. Most of the people who are appointed into the judiciary are not fit and proper to be in the judiciary at all. We must return to the original standard, if it means let them apply.
“Let it be advertised and let the public make input on the kind of persons that should be made judge. Because the public know these people, they know their integrity and their level of competence.”
Ubani also advocated infrastructure upgrade in the courtrooms.
“Most times you see the courts sitting without any light, sometimes in a very un-conducive environment. We must provide the judiciary with the infrastructure that will make it efficient, very functional.
“Judges should also stop writing in long hand. The judiciary now is ICT (information communication technology) driven. We should not allow our judicial officers to be taken proceedings in long hand.
“It is outdated and should not be allowed under this century.”
