The most common questions that arise around this topic are:

1. What kind of justice is this?
2. Why would anyone be willing to give up their freedom in exchange for monetary compensation?

It's not justice, any way you slice it. It's a sad reflection of the reality of power abuse, corruption, and the things that the wealthy and powerful can get away with. Ding zui is illegal, but corruption runs deep and many in the judicial system (with enough bribery) simply turn a blind eye.

The practice of standing in for others' crimes goes way back. The rationale ran like this:

Crimes call for punishments
Punishments are partly a display to warn other potential criminals against the repercussions of committing said crime
The criminal, by paying for a stand-in, is - quite literally - "paying for his crime".


Stand-in punishments have also been, at times, an act of self-sacrifice. Examples include:

A parent serving a child's sentence, and thus allowing the child to have a better future
A child serving a parent's crime, in order to provide a comfortable life for the parent
A family member serving someone else's sentence in exchange for monetary compensation for their family.

These altruistic motives can still be seen today. For example, people sometimes take the blame for a family member's drunk-driving incident, since the punishment for a deadly accident is far more severe if the driver was intoxicated. This means that overall the family spends less time is prison.

In other cases, there are people who willingly stand-in in exchange for money for their family (Owing to the large income gap in China, this amount of money can often be very small). The family then can afford to live a life that is better than the one they were facing previously.

There is nothing just about the wealthy paying their way out of a crime. Everyone knows that, and cases of power-abuse are often accompanied by massive public outrage, such as with the case of Li Qiming, who drunkenly ran over two girls on the campus of Hebei University. When he was finally stopped by security guards, his response was "Sue me if you dare. My father is Li Gang." "My Father is Li Gang" quickly became a bitter inside joke that's used to dodge responsibility in anything and everything. A contest was even started around incorporating the phrase "My father is Li Gang" into classic Chinese poems.

Much of this is a reflection of a society where people emphasize power over individual liberty. The sad reality is that, at least for now, it can be easy for the wealthy and powerful to get away with things that they really shouldn't be able to.

Can these happen in Nigeria or does it happen?

We never believe that a nigeria can wear bomb and blow up himself 5years ago.we thought we were to smart for such nonsense but now its the order of the day.if this poverty and unemployment continues in the nearest season,we wouldn't be able to imagine what ll become of this country cos anything is possible now even lesbians and gays are asking to be recongnised now