Justice Mohammed Talba’s sentence causes national uproar for its absurdity

Police pension thief

Corruption pays and the higher the magnitude of the malfeasance, the better for the perpetrator. This seems to be the maxim Justice Talba of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sought to propound last Monday in a ruling that has stirred indignation nationwide.
In sentencing Mr. John Yakubu Yusuf, the deputy director in the Police Pension Office who was found guilty of colluding with others to steal over N27 billion, Justice Talba chose the most lenient of options. He sentenced Yusuf to two years imprisonment with an option of N750,000.00 fine. He is also to forfeit 32 houses in the FCT and Gombe as well as N325million that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said were proceeds from the crime. The convict, according to newspaper reports, briskly paid the fine from the booth of his car and went home a free man.
Apparently discomfited by the public outrage that trailed what is clearly judicial impunity, the culprit was re-arrested by the EFCC. According to the agency, he is being arraigned over non-declaration of all his assets and liability, particularly his negligence to note his interest in a company known as SY-A Global Services Limited.
The perfidy of the light sentence handed to Yusuf by Justice Talba was brought to the fore by a similar sentencing the following day (Tuesday) at the Oyo State High Court where Justice Mashood Abass sentenced the Provost of the Federal Co-operative College, Ibadan, Mrs. Ruth Aweto and the bursar, Mr. Adekanye Komolafe to four years imprisonment each, without the option of fine.
Their offence: they were found guilty of deceiving the Federal Government by presenting 41 casual staff as permanent staff of the college, with annual emolument of about N7million instead of N3.6million. In essence, they made a dubious gain of only N3.4 million over one year.
Justice Talba’s action must have set a precedent, albeit a pernicious one, in the annals of convictions in Nigeria’s pension scam. Understandably, sentencing is at the discretion of the judge but the rule of the thumb is to match a sentence against the gravity of an offence. It is therefore, a sheer parody of justice to ask a convict who has admitted to stealing billions of naira to pay just a token fine and go home. It is particularly worrisome when the stolen money is the life-time savings and toil of workers who are denied the enjoyment of such savings in their old age.
It is common knowledge that in recent years, many aged and ailing pensioners die on verification queues across the country in the bid to get their pensions while many go for years without any pay. It is because of unscrupulous people like Yusuf who would rather covet the pooled funds that the pension system has been dysfunctional and murky. One would expect the justice to have handed down a punishment almost commensurate with the offence of the felon to serve as a deterrent to others. To have allowed Yusuf to go home almost unscathed, Justice Talba leaves all right-thinking people suspicious that there must be much more to the judgment.
How come Justice Talba gave no thought to the import of his pronouncement on the society? His sentencing endorses corruption at its most bizarre level. His message: steal big enough, get light sentence. It is salutary that the EFCC has re-arraigned this callous felon; we hope that he would get his just dessert at the end of the day. The Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) should immediately review the ruling to save the face of Nigeria’s judiciary.
NaijaCenter