For awarding an “unreasonable” sentence to John Yakubu Yusufu who confessed to complicity in the Police Pension Fund scam, Justice Abubakar Talba of the Abuja High Court has been suspended by the National Judicial Council (NJC) for one full year without payment.
Public opprobrium after the judgement forced the NJC to summon Justice Talba to defend allegations that he was bribed to free the convict. He refuted the allegation but NJC nevertheless found him culpable.
“The National Judicial Council under the chairmanship of the Hon. Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar (GCON) at its meeting which was held on 24th and 25th April 2013 suspended Hon. Justice Abubakar Mahmud Talba of the FCT High Court from office for a period of twelve months without pay,” the body stated in a release signed by Deputy Director of Information, Mr. Soji Oye.
“Hon. Justice Talba was suspended from office sequel to the findings by Council that he did not exercise his discretion judicially and judiciously with regard to the sentences he passed on one of the accused persons, Mr. John Yakubu Yusuf in the Police Pension case of FRN Vs Esai Dangabar and 5 Ors.”
It added that in the exercise of its disciplinary powers under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, it was also issuing serious warning to Hon. Justice Talba to desist from unreasonable exercise of judicial discretion in all matters brought before him.
“On the various Petitions written against Hon. Justice Okechukwu Okeke of the Federal High Court who is to retire from service on 18th May, 2013, the Council considered his responses and decided to seriously warn him,” the statement added.
Section 309 of the Criminal Procedure Act, CPA, upon which Yusufu was charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) allowed the court to sentence the accused to a maximum of two years imprisonment with a fine but Talba used his discretion to order Yusufu to only pay fine of N750,000, after admitting conspiracy with six other civil servants to steal about N23bn from the Police Pension Fund.
