A coalition of civil society and student organisations on Wednesday protested Monday’s controversial judgement of Justice Abubakar Talba against Mr. John Yakubu Yusuf, a former director of the Police Pension Office Who was convicted for his role in the embezzlement of pension funds to the tune of N32bn.
Yusuf was been handed a two-year prison sentence with the option of a N750,000 fine on Monday after he pleaded guilty to betrayal of trust and conversion of the funds to personal use, contrary to Section 309 of the Penal Code Law. The fine was promptly paid, rendering the two-year jail sentence inconsequential.
Venting their displeasure with the judgement, the groups — comprising the Anti-Corruption Network (ACN), the National Association of Nigerian students (NANS) and Association of Unemployed Youths of Nigeria (AUYN) — laid siege on the Ministry of Justice, from where they proceeded to the Supreme Court and then the National Assembly.
Clad in black attires and numbering hundreds, they hoisted placards and banners bearing various inscriptions but all with one meaning: the retrial of the case and appropriate sanctioning of Justice Talba.
“Judiciary is the hope of the highest bidders,” one of the placards read. Others were: “Egunje spoil Judges,”, “Same Justice Talba did Kenny Martins fine,” “The blood of dead pensioners will hunt commercial judges” and “Talbanism: N32bn = N750, 000!!! Bad Mathematics,”
Speaking at the Ministry of Justice, Executive Secretary of ACN and former member House of Representatives member, Dino Melaye urged President Goodluck Jonathan, leaders and members of the National Assembly, leaders of security agencies and others in various positions of leadership to respect the wish of Nigerians on the expunction of corruption from public offices.
“We are collaborating now with Nigerian students and others interested in fighting corruption and part of our strategy is to ensure that we shout ‘barawo’ in the North, ‘ole’ in the South-West, and ‘onyeoshi’ in the East of this country among others on corrupt people,” Melaye said, flanked by Senate President of NANS, Comrade Kolade Olaolu and National Coordinator of AUYN, Comrade Damesi Momoh.
In a petition forwarded to Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Aloma Mukhtar and copied Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, the protesters recalled that the same Justice Abubakar Talba presided over the trial of Chief Kenny Martins in the Police Equipment Fund fraud until the case was dead and buried. They lamented, further, that Justice Talba is in the running for the seat of Chief Judge of Adamawa State.
“How else can we describe a situation where Mr. John Yusuf, a man involved in a scam of more than N27bn was let off the hook with a paltry N750, 000 only as fine option for a two-year jail term?” a part of the issued statement queried.
“We recall that a Magistrate Court recently sentenced a man to two years jail term without option of fine for stealing a goat worth N5,000. You will also agree with us that China is the largest economy today yet it punishes cases of corruption with the capital punishment (death) to serve as deterrent to others.
They called for “thorough investigation of Justice Abubakar Talba and others like him,” saying they should be served appropriate punishments.
“We once again call for eradication of plea bargain,” the statement continued. “It is evil, nonsensical, archaic and detrimental to our avowed fight against corruption. We advocate for the China option of capital punishment for corruption, in which the family of the convicted and executed persons pay the bill for execution.”
