The
House of Representatives yesterday condemned the last week’s judgement
of an Abuja High Court which convicted a deputy director in the Police
Pension Office, John Yakubu Yusuf, for misappropriating N23 billion,
describing it as “mild.”
Adopting a motion on the urgent need
to revisit the case sponsored by House Minority Whip Rep. Samson Osagie
(ACN, Edo) and 9 others, the House urged the EFCC and the Attorney
General of the Federation, Mohammed Bello Adoke, to appeal the
judgement.
The legislators also passed another
prayer calling on the institution of National Assembly to set machinery
in motion to review the provisions of the penal and criminal codes to
provide stricter and stiffer punishments for corruption cases.
When the question was put by Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal to members after the debate, the House voted in favour of the motion.
In his reaction, former Vice President
Atiku Abubakar called on the Federal Government and National Assembly
to make the anti-corruption law stiffer to serve the purpose of
deterrence against white-collar criminals in the country.
Reacting to the public outrage that
greeted the two-year sentence passed on a pension crime convict, Atiku
explained that the issue brought to light the major defects of the
anti-corruption laws.
Atiku said that “President Obasanjo
submitted a stiffer draft law which, however, was watered down by the
then National Assembly.”
DailyTrust
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