The ordinary citizen in Nigeria will
never see the Judiciary as the last
hope of the common man because
they feel oppressed by the rich due to
some ridiculous judgments that have
been delivered under our Criminal
Justice System. The Judiciary, when
not guilty of delay in delivering justice,
is guilty of bias or unfair judgment or
in most cases, guilty of both alas,
justice is delayed and equally be
denied.
Lately, the Nigeria Judicial System has
failed to deliver ‘appropriate’ judgment
to public office holders cum looters
who apparently derive joy in
embezzling our commonwealth. One of
such cases where justice have been
denied is that of James Onanefe Ibori,
the former Governor of Delta State,
who was inexplicably discharged and
acquitted on all charges brought
against him here in a Nigerian Court
but was rather effortlessly convicted
on virtually the same offences in far
away Britain after pleading guilty to
same. Before the Court ruling that
acquitted James Ibori, the Nigeria
Judiciary has delivered some abysmal
judgments on cases involving public
office holders who have looted the
treasury of this nation with impunity.
Tafa Balogun, the former Police I.G
was jailed for just 6 months for
stealing N7billion. Bode George equally
was jailed for 30 months for contract
fraud worth N100billion. Furthermore,
Cecilia Ibru the former M.D of the now
defunct Oceanic Bank was sentenced
to just 6 months in prison. The trend
of these rather abysmal judgments is
endless.
While I thought the Judgment
delivered by the London Southwark
Crown Court, which sentenced James
Ibori to a 13year jail term without an
option of fine, and still made him
forfeit all the properties he acquired
with the looted funds amounting to a
staggering £50million (N13billion) will
serve as a wakeup call to the Nigerian
Judges nay Courts, another regrettable
and rather unfortunate Judgment
was delivered again on Monday 28,
January 2013. An Abuja High Court
headed by Justice Abubakar Mahmud
Talba sentenced Mr. Yakubu Yusuf a
former boss of the Police Pensions
Board to a 2 years jail term with an
option of N750,000 for stealing
N23billion (an amount that is almost
double the James Ibori loot). What a
Judgment!!!
I did an analysis of the N23billion
stolen by Mr. Yusuf John Yakubu and
came to the conclusion that if he
chooses not to invest the stolen money
on any business whatsoever, it will
take him 63 years to exhaust that
N23billion, assuming he spends
N1million every day, but which insane
mind will spend such an amount of
money anyway except in Nigeria
where anything can happen. The
breakdown goes thus:
365 days = 1 year
Convert 63 years to days = 365 x 63
= 22,995 days
Now multiply 22,995 days x N1,
000,000 = 22,995,000,000 still left
with N5million naira for his burial
arrangement when he is finally gone
to hell am sure.
In other words, if Mr. Yusuf is so
prudent to want to spend N500, 000
daily from the N23billion he admitted
to stealing, it will take him 126 years
to exhaust the said sum. THAT IS
HOW HUGE N23BILLION IS!
Recently, Channels TV exposed the
rot in the Police College Ikeja. The
documentary did a good job by
exposing the humiliation a Nigerian
Police Cadet Officer goes through
during training. With that N23billion,
the Ministry of Police Affairs (I am
sure) will fix the dilapidated hostels
and lecture theatres coupled with
other facilities that are in bad shape
at the eyesore that is the Police College
Ikeja.
It is common knowledge how Officers
and Men of the Nigerian Police Force
suffer the hardship of proper
accommodation. It’s so bad that most
of them are often embarrassed by
street hoodlums who see them as
their enemy. The N23billion stolen by
Mr. Yusuf if invested in a housing
scheme by the Ministry of Police
Affairs will provide 8,000 units of
mini 2 bedroom flat for our Policemen
at the price N2.7million per unit as
informed by a local housing contractor.
This will provide good housing for our
Policemen and enable them give their
best in service as well as encourage
them to shy away from corruption
which has become a cankerworm in
the Force. THAT IS HOW
EFFECTIVE N23BILLION COULD BE!
It is also note worthy that the
N23billion embezzled by Mr. Yusuf is
over and above the 2013 budget
allocation to the Ministries of Mines
and Steal (N13billion), Environment
(N21billion) and a little below that of
the Ministry of Lands and Housing
(N24billion).
The Chinese government on Monday
28, January 2013, handed over to
Nigeria, a 150-bed hospital, fully
furnished with state of the art
equipment. The entire structure and
furniture cost $12.5million, about
1.9billion. The N23billion stolen by Mr.
Yusuf will build at least 12 well
equipped hospitals, the type that the
Chinese donated to Nigeria on Monday.
Imagine 12 well equipped hospitals
distributed in the six geopolitical zones.
Imagine the millions of lives the
hospital could save, the billion our
nation could save from overseas
medical tourism. Imagine! Imagine!!
Imagine!!!
As I conclude my writing on the
ridiculous judgment of justice Talba, I
saw a news that our judiciary did
another wonder in ikare, Ondo state
on 29 January, 2013. a day after the
famous justice Talba’s judgment. One
23years old Adepoju was sentenced to
3years without an option of fine for
stealing a N17, 000 worth of
blackberry handset! What kind of
justice system sentences petty
criminals to 3years and 2years in
prison for stealing a handset and
vegetable respectively, yet set free
another man whose crime has
resulted into countless death of
pensioners while waiting in queue to
collect their unavailable pension.
It is really disheartening that the said
N23billion stolen by Mr. Yusuf
Yakubu, was money meant for the
payment of retired Police Officers that
have served these country
meritoriously (albeit ostensibly) who
ought to be compensated but have
been allowed to die of hunger and
starvation because of one man’s greed
and insatiable thievery.
A couple of days after the debacle
that is the Justice Talba Judgment on
Mr. Yakubu, the EFCC were reported
to have re-arrested him for another
crime bothering on failure to declare
assets. This is a welcome development
as it will enable the Judiciary right it’s
wrong by handing down a
stiffer punishment on Mr. Yusuf for
his act which could not be
differentiated from that of Mr. James
Ibori who bagged 13 years in prison in
London.
He should equally be charged for
economic/financial terrorism (if there
is anything as such) as that singular
act have killed hundreds of retired
police officer and rendered others that
are still alive “living corpses”. This act,
in my view, is not different from that
of Henry Okah convicted in South
Africa for the October 1 , 2010
bombing which also left tens of
citizens dead and some wounded.
If our corrupt politicians and civil
servants under this government
thinks they can continue to
Purchase judgment from our court
through fraudulent lawyers and
government agency like EFCC, it is
just a matter of time when the long
hand of the law shall catch up with
them.
This writer is inspired by young
writers like:
Dada Olusegun @Dolusegun
Bukola Ogunyemi @zebbook
The writer is also on twitter
@FalayiOpeyem


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This is my own opinion about the looting of our national treasury and the failure of our judiciary to act accordingly. The write-up may be long bt it very interesting. Kindly read and drop your comments. I hope it makes the front page. One love NairaLander