Icheoku says, what a welcome first step, the conviction for corruption of the erstwhile governor of Edo State, Nigeria, Mr. Lucky Osawaru Igbinedion! The take-home lesson here, is that for once a Nigerian ex-public official has been held accountable for the sins of official corruption. Bravo to the judiciary that made this possible and our thanks to the EFCC, the agent-provocateur! As for the sentence of just fine and forfeiture without any prison term, Icheoku says it is acceptable to us; as the imperative here is that for once a hitherto deemed untouchable, fraudulent public official has been convicted of official corruption in Nigeria. Lucky Igbinedion, the scion of the powerful Igbinedion ESAMA family of Okada, Benin-Edo State, Nigeria is now a convicted felon! Lucky was not lucky this time and has been held responsible for his criminal corruption. Precisely the former governor of Edo State, Lucky Igbinedion, was on Thursday December 18th, 2008 convicted by the Federal High Court, sitting in Enugu for neglecting to disclose a bank account in the asset declaration form of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after he left office. Lucky Igbinedion was ordered to repay the sum of N3,579,524.16, being part of the proceeds of his official corruption, in a Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) account number 4124013983110 back to the government. The court also ordered that Lucky Igbinedion's held company, Kiva Corporation pay a fine of N500 million for the N100 million stolen from Edo State Government. In addition, the court ordered that Lucky Igbinedion's Kiva Corporation winds up as required by law with all its assets forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria pursuant to Section 18 (2) of the Money Laundering Act. It also ordered Lucky Igbinedion to forfeit a landed property in Abuja, two plots of land in Benin City, a home of four bedroom apartments with boys' quarters, and another storey building and a bungalow.
But the EFCC in rejecting the sentence said it is believes that the essence of a plea bargain is not only for suspects to forfeit the proceeds of crime but that such should go with a sentence which will serve as deterrence. The Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs Farida Waziri while instructing the commission’s counsel to file an appeal against the verdict said, "the commission will rather go the long way of prosecution than to settle for a plea bargain verdict that has no bite or will not serve any deterrence purpose."
Icheoku says that the court's order is an agreeable very good first-step in the right direction; but that it should have made its order of forfeiture to benefit Edo State government, being the rightful victim of Lucky Igbinedion's pillage. However the judgment-properties may be distributed, the lesson of this verdict is that today a king who does not know Joseph has risen and called for rendering of accounts. Today, Lucky Igbinedion is a convict, a simpleton, a common-criminal, a 419 fraudster who defrauded his home state in breach of his fiduciary duty of trust, being the governor then. Lucky Igbinedion cannot vote nor be voted for anymore in any election in Nigeria, now that his criminal past has finally caught up with him. It is a standing rule of democracy that criminals like Lucky Igbinedion do not participate in the electoral process. Whether he can even have a driving licence is arguable. Icheoku believes that Lucky Igbinedion stashed away several other undiscovered looted millions of Naira somewhere, but the essence of his trial was not to impoverish him but to hold him responsible for official corruption! So, many thanks to the EFCC and the judiciary for a job well done! One down, many more to go!
EFCC, Igbinedion And Plea-Bargaining
ReplyDeleteBy Erasmus Ikhide, africandemocratization@yahoo.com
It is mind numbing that it's truer as speculated earlier by a number of columnists; especially Okey Ndibe of the Sun newspaper and Sahara Reporters, that Farida Waziri, the chairperson of the Nigerian anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), prefers to remain obdurate than to ensure that economic criminals are brought to justice.
It felt like a ballistic missile had hit me when I read a day earlier on the cyber space, precisely on December 17, 2008 that the 191- count charge against the former Governor Lucky Igbinedion were narrowed down to one after a plea bargain the ex-governor entered into with the EFCC. I plough back in time into what Mr. Femi Babafemi, the commission's spokesman told Nigerians at the behest of his boss, Mrs. Farida Wazairi, in the wake of Chief Cletus Ibeto's arrest. Hear him: ''Also yesterday, the chairman of the commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, expressed opposition to plea-bargain strategy being used by the anti-corruption agency, saying it was wrong, and unhelpful in the crusade against corruption in Nigeria''.
It is scandalous that after the judgment that was handed down on Igbinedion on December 18, 2008 by Justice Abdul Tafarati at the Enugu Federal High Court to hear the same Mr. Babafemi in a press statement saying that the outcome of the exercise at the court in Enugu falls short of the EFCC's expectation. He said: "It is believed that the essence of a plea bargain is not only for suspects to forfeit the proceeds of crime but that such should go with a sentence which will serve as deterrence. In view of this development, the Chairman of the EFCC, Mrs Farida Waziri, has instructed the commission's counsel to file an appeal against the verdict immediately. The commission will rather go the long way of prosecution than to settle for a plea bargain verdict that has no bite or will not serve any deterrence purpose.''
That Mrs. Farida Waziri has reversed herself against her initial stance on plea-bargain and, shamelessly allowed ex-governor Lucky Igbinedion to get away with a slap on the wrist must be conceptualized on her appointment. She owes her appointment to the commission on the compromise that she would do no justice in the cases against ex-governors who have plundered their various states, however brazen, to the detriment of Nigerians.
This is a credibility problem for the Yar' Adua-led administration that had his mandate legitimised by the Supreme Court by 4-3 Justices.
Any surprise that the ruling given by a judge at the Federal High Court in Enugu, on December 18, 2008 fined Lucky Igbinedion a paltry of N3.5 million, with no option of jail time for the egregious crime of plundering the Edo State treasury for eight-years. The judgment is in compliant with the ''plea bargain'' agreement entered into by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission with the former governor to return a fraction of all that he pilfered while the state laid in ruin.
Edo State and its people are the ultimate losers in that judgment. The N3.5 million and three properties were awarded to the federal government in that bizarre judgment.
It is up to Edo State government to cede to Federal government what rightly belong to her because it is having a son who preferred to enrich his luxuriant moustache that an eagle can perch each dawning day of the years than to minister to the basic needs of the people. And with this judgment Lucky is permitted to keep his N4.4 billion loot, palatial houses in Nigeria, the UK, USA, South Africa, and Canada and the multibillion oil tank farm he is purportedly trying to build at Apapa, Lagos.
Between 1999 and 2007, the big wealthy states collected hugh sums from the federation account than any other. But are you surprised that aside the clean cities left behind in Cross River by ex-governor Donald Duke in the ambient of peace, and the heritage called Tinapa and Obudu Ranch as enduring monuments whose local and foreign attraction has earned the state, and still earning it a great deal of internally generated revenue?
What we had of Lucky Igbinedion's eight years of moustache tendering and its lavish enrichment was visionlessness of the first order; dishonest leadership that has deepened the state's poverty index and unemployment and insecurity, while the poorly governed people groaned hopelessly at the mercy of his squad who dared any dissenting oppositions to have their voices muffled or pay the ultimate prize with their lives.
No nation worth its source with baying intensity from the wreckage of mindless yester year's governance as Nigeria with checkered history of reckless leadership quotient can redeem itself from the pang of corruption with plea-bargaining. A plea bargain is a process in which the defendant arranges a 'deal' with the prosecution.
A plea bargain essentially means that a defendant charged with multiple crimes will plead guilty to a certain charge in order to escape going to trial for a more serious charge. The drawbacks inherent with ''pleas guilty'' is that the system as a whole doesn't do what the people count on it to do, which is to sort out the guilty people from the innocent people. It doesn't do that because the guilty people and the innocent people are all faced with the same pressure to plead guilty since they can not face the risk of continuous legal-guessing their acquaintance or charge with criminality.
Plea-bargain in exchange for justice, in my studied opinion, is criminal in itself. The former Republican Illinois Governor, George Ryan, United States, who is currently serving out a six-year prison sentence after being convicted on racketeering and fraud charges; as was revealled by a decade-long investigation which began with the sale of driver's licences for bribes and led to the conviction of dozens of people who worked for Ryan when he was secretary of state and governor spoke volume of how to treat criminals in positions authority.
May we seek other means to have ex-governor Lucky Nosakhare Igbinedion put behind bars for as long as possible now that Justice Abdul Tafarati and EFCC have forced a giant camel through the eye of a needle?
Ikhide is the Director of Research, Constitutionalism andCommunications African Democratization, CAAD.
EFCC wants Igbinedion jailed
ReplyDeleteBy Tobi Soniyi and Olufemi Adeosun, Abuja
Published: Wednesday, 7 Jan 2009
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has filed an appeal against the judgment of Justice A Abdu-Kafarati of the Federal High Court in Enugu, challenging the imposition of a fine on the former Edo State Governor, Mr. Lucky Igbinedion.
In an appeal filed by EFCC’s lawyers, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs and Muslim Hassan at the Court of Appeal in Enugu, the commission said that Justice Abdu-Kafarati should have sentenced Igbinedion to jail instead of imposing a fine on him.
Ground one of the Notice of Appeal reads in part, “The learned trial judge erred in law when he imposed a fine on Igbinedion rather than a term of imprisonment.”
The anti-graft agency argued that Section 27 (3) of the EFCC Act, 2004 under which Igbinedion was charged clearly provided for a term of imprisonment not exceeding five years.
Citing the case of Etim and The Queen (1964)1 All NLR 33 at 41, EFCC said that the judge should not have imposed a fine unless in exceptional circumstances.
It said, “That for a serious offence bordering on corruption such as the one with which the respondent (Igbinedion) was convicted, Section 381 of the Criminal Procedure Act would not apply.”
In ground two, the commission said that the judge erred in law when he wrongly exercised his discretion by imposing a fine in lieu of imprisonment under section 382 (1) of the CPA when the facts of the case did not support the exercise of such discretion in favour of the convict.
Igbinedion was sentenced to a fine of N3.6m after he was convicted of committing fraud while he was the governor of Edo State.
The EFCC’s Chairman, Mrs. Farida Waziri, had on December 18, 2008, when the court imposed the fine on Igbinedion, said that the plea bargaining which the commission duly entered into fell short of its expectation, adding that the commission would appeal against the decision.