Uhuru, Farida's First Conviction As Efcc Boss (but See Wetin them Do O')

Enugu High Court convicts Igbinedion, fines him N3.5 million
From CHIDI NNADI and PETRUS OBI, Enugu
Friday, December 19, 2008


Chief Lucky Igbinedion
Photo: Sun News Publishing 
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Former governor of Edo State , Chief Lucky Igbinedion, was yesterday convicted of corruption by the Federal High Court in Enugu in a trial initiated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

But the charge which were at the last count 191, were on December 17, 2008 narrowed down to one after a plea bargain the ex-governor entered into with the anti-graft commission.

The new one-count charge that led to Igbinedion’s conviction read: "That you Lucky Nosakhare Igbinedion (former governor of Edo State) on or about 21st January 2008 within the jurisdiction of this honourable court neglected to make a declaration of your interest in the Account No: 4124013983110 with a new generation bank (Name withheld) in the declaration of assets form of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and you thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 27 (3) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act 2008."
When the court read out this new charge to Igbinedion he did not waste time to plead guilty, making the presiding judge, Justice Abdul Tafarati, to sentence him to a fine of N3.5 million which is equal to the amount in the said account.

The judge asked the EFCC to remand him in its custody pending the time he would pay the fine, but as at the time Igbinedion was driven out of the court premises in a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV), the EFCC counsel, Rotimi Jacobs was still in the court premises and it was not clear whether the convict had paid the fine or not.

But in a swift reaction, the EFCC through its spokesman, Mr Femi Babafemi, told Daily Sun on phone that the commission rejected the sentence and was going on appeal right away.
Babafemi also issued a press statement, saying the outcome of the exercise at the court in Enugu fell short of the EFCC’s expectation.

"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," the statement said.

Also in a chat with newsmen after the judgment, counsel to the EFCC, Mr. Jacobs (SAN) said he was shocked by the option of fine handed down to Igbinedion, adding that they had expected the court to have committed Igbinedion to prison going by the degree of his offence.
Jacobs, however, added that "the fact that a former governor has been convicted is enough as this has made him (Igbinedion) to fall from grace to grass."

Igbinedion who arrived at the court at about 10: 20 a.m. in company of a few aides looked very sober as he was standing in the dock.
His counsel, however, at about 11:05 a.m. pleaded with the presiding judge that the ex-governor be allowed to sit down close to the dock, which was obliged him.

In his plea before the sentence, counsel to Igbinedion, Mr Adetunji Oyeyipo (SAN) told the court that his client was outside the country in January 2008 when the EFCC filed the suit against him in court and he voluntarily returned home to face the charge.
Besides, he said: "Your lordship will observe from records and conduct of the accused person in court that he has never been absent from court, his comportment in court has always been sober, pensive and respectful."

Oyeyipo, still pleading with the judge, said that all the time the former governor was allowed to travel out of the country, he had always returned home to continue to face his trial in court.
"With regards to the charge, the first accused is charged with the offence of neglecting to make declaration; he did not willfully or knowingly refuse to disclose his interest in an account," he said.

Oyeyipo told the court that the N3.5 million stated by the prosecutor "is not an amount he will ordinarily want to hide," urging him to consider in his sentence the stature of Igbinedion before he became governor of Edo State and as a former governor to impose on him the mildest punishment.
In all, the EFCC brought a fresh 24-count charge with 23 against Kiva Corporation Limited, which also was found guilty and asked to refund N500 million just as three properties owned by the former governor were seized.

One of the aides of the former governor who spoke of record with Daily Sun, however, pointed out that it would be unfair to expect the court to impose any more punishment on Igbinedion than it already did. According to him, of all the 24-count charge, which the EFCC brought, only one was specifically against his principal. The others, he said, were against Kiva Corporation Ltd.

 
http://sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2008/dec/19/national-19-12-2008-01.htm

And you will say Nigeria is Willing to fight corruption? Is it not for me to go there and Loot then am the Happening guy Go and Get a plea Bargain Open a special account that I will put the Money into and tell EFCC To collect that and waka Pass? We need God in this Country

Absurd!

The man stole Billions and pay paltry sum! It is another way of legalising corruption.

EFCC is a total charade
Nigeria will never move forward on the basis of all these shaninigans!
Hopeless and useless leaders further plundering the Nation into a quagmire of blatant bias, injustice and corruption!

Hmmmn Can you Imagine? 3.5 Million, An insult to Edo People and the whole Nation, Igbinedion that Every body Knew he is Very corrupt only asked to pay 3.5 Million? Please Who are they playing with? the Appeal is going to last another 20 years and the man would be a minister someday.

God o' Please Help Nigeria.

N3.5m?
haba,even his driver can pay that.

according to prophet fela this na paddy paddy government , theres actually no thin line between crook and saint


http://connectafrica.wordpress

I guess, we have all begun to miss Ribadu. Unfortunately, he is gone for good and our suffering is just starting. Those of you that have so much faith in AGF's rule of law, i hope, we are now all seeing the result.

The truth is that no nigerian court has successfully convicted anyone of corruption in Nigeria. Not only are the judges corruptible, the cases take decades to conclude, so, it doesn't deter anyone from continuing to loot.
Ribadu was able to recover over $5.5 billion by taking tough and decisive action.

I can see that yar'ardua has endorsed corruption in this country no wonder they where in a hurry to get ribadu out of the way. i weep for this my country called naija. former governor alamesiagha was also convicted on the same charges and sentenced to 2 years in prison but was freed b'cos of time he had spent in jail already awaiting trial.

i don't know if you guys have noticed the terms of the conviction yet? the guy wasn't even charged with corruption, rather the buzzword in the 1-count charge is 'negligence'. hehehe.

maybe it's me, but is this 'rule of no law' thing starting to smell?

Innocent people are lavishing in Nigerian jail while the main criminals are walking boldly on the street.
Which way Nigeria??

it is really a shame! I knew this Farida Lady was up to something fishy!

this is waziri's first high-profile prosecution. i guess we all know what follows after this. a massive swarm of guilty pleas to 'negligence'. watch and see how everyone else falls in line. nigeria home video at it's finest.

Corruption and Nigeria are synonymous. This dastard verdict is the final nail on the coffin. There is no better word to describe the relationship between Government and its people other than "Slavery"
Yes I said it. Nigerians are slaves to their masters (those in Government)

Honestly, we shouldn't have expected much from Farida Waziri.

There's also no way you can use a set of rules scripted by the corrupt themselves to fight corruption.  And maybe that's  why Ribadu resorted to extra-constitutional means and methods to fight corruption. And he got results!

Sadly, we all crucified him!

What exactly do we want: Real Results or Merely Paying lip service to the serious issues at stake?

We need to get serious, NIGERIANS!

gamechange:

Corruption and Nigeria are synonymous. This dastard verdict is the final nail on the coffin. There is no better word to describe the relationship between Government and its people other than "Slavery"
Yes I said it. Nigerians are slaves to their masters (those in Government)

I concur with you on the fact of corruption being synonymous with nigeria. I only disagree we are slaves to the government.

I feel we are slaves to ourselves. To our ignorance and sentimentality! Today we shout, Ribadu is too hard and excessive, now we see a 'soft and kind' woman, fighting the monster called corruption with kid gloves, and we are crying she is bad,bad,bad! Wetin we want sef?

We vascilate, oscillate, undulate and fluctuate with every wind that blows around! We dont know what we want.

PERIOD!

God will bless Ribadu. Now we are begining to see that this administration is not ready to fight corruption, but to encourage it. I only pray to God to see us through. So a man will come into my house as an armed rubber, rape all my family members, cart away all my monies and properties and later come back to apologies, return say N10 thousand naira and then off he goes. what kind of country is this. And yet we will say Obasanjo was not good. Oh Baba OBJ , I am begining to miss u, I wish u could come back again.

What else do u expect From this Farida woman.This is a woman that stood as a surety for a corrupt Governor.So from the word go,she is one of them.

As if for one minute you guys believed justice would be served!

shotster50:

As if for one minute you guys believed justice would be served!

but i ddnt think it will be this ridiculous

ATTENTION NAIRALANDERS

Corruption has been 'partially legalised' in nigeria.If you get into any political post in the country loot as much as possible without looking back.The highest punishment you can get is 'remmiting' back at most 5% of your loot.

asha 80:

ATTENTION NAIRALANDERS

Corruption has been 'partially legalised' in nigeria.If you get into any political post in the country loot as much as possible without looking back.The highest punishment you can get is 'remmiting' back at most 5% of your loot.

the highest u'll forfeit is 0.1%,
this N3.5m is about 0.002434 of wat he stole.

This man can pull 3,000,000 out of his shoe. They call that punishment. Anyway we are talking about Nigeria. We really should not be suprised

This is not even upto the amount of cash they 'dash' girls in South Africa lol

9ja judicial sys is corrupt, why would de have plea for bail equal to amt he uses to brush his teeth, what we should introduce is that any corrupt politician found guilty should spend at least 10yrs in jail without any bail, no cash form or propt form of bail. he must served his jail term, person loot 100billion and he pays a fine of 1million naira, this kind of syst is found in xtreme corrupt countries,

Shame Shame Shame! in this country you can do anything and get away with it.

Shame on you nigerians, including your sick yaradua.

Steal a penny's worth of dried fish in a Nigerian market-place and a screaming mob will descend on you and tear your cheap ass to pieces.

Steal the entire contents of the state treasury in Nigeria and people will line up round the block to pay their respects at your house, in exchange for a flea-bite of your loot.

Moral ? Steal, but do so on a GRAND scale, or you will be burnt to death in the streets.

That judgment is a complete pervarsion of justice, anti-social and obnoxious, enough grammer! I suggest that judge should be send back to law college, because he is not even fit to sit in his village meeting. We should not expect any past governor to go behind the bar in Yar dua administration, considering the most fraudlent and controversial circumstance that led to his emergence as the president of the Federal Republic midwived by the baboon president from Otta farm.He, Yar'dua, was and still one of them -the governor. ("Agwo adighi eri agwo ibeya"- "Snake no de chop fellow snake" else a long tail will come out of its mouth). Until they day the common Nigerians reliase that our affairs are being stagemanaged and manipulated even from the pinnacle of justice- the law court , what is happening will continue happening. We need to massively stand up and say no to their evils even in the face guns and death. But in Naija, who wan die, so silence and suffering become our own "plea bargin"

Can't we charge yar adua to court for misconduct?.

damola1:

Can't we charge yar adua to court for misconduct?.

, Maybe you take the first step. I pray you'll live to tell the story

What do you expect when daddy has made a few calls??
It is like a routine they go through EFCC so that the public believes that they are fighting corruption and after a couple of months, it is all over, they are set freee.
But i do know one thing is sure, if the peole of edo state get him, he is a goner
This man made the state look like it did before the whitemen came
LIFE IS NOT FAIR IS IT?

The thing that ained me most is all this nonesense about Ribadu been better than waziri.How many governors during his tenure were senetence to jail and even if the former bayelsa governor was sentence to jailed.The question is did he serve.He spent almost a year in London prison and they say he has serve jail before was it up to 2 years and why would they sentence sum1 2yearsfor corruption.
If that be the case I will steal 500billion naira and let them jail me for 2years which I will serve or pay a fine of $3.5million.Ribadu and waziri will never do anything.I just wish they could desolve this mess called EFCC.