Pension scam: Stop sending wrong message, Senate tells judiciary

The Leader of the Senate, Victor Ndoma -Egba SAN, has urged the Nigerian judiciary to be more resourceful in order to avoid sending wrong messages to the world.
He spoke against the backdrop of the recent judgment passed by a High Court in Abuja, in which a pension thief, Mr. John Yakubu Yusuf, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with an option of N750, 000 bail for conniving with others to steal N27.2bn from the Police Pension Office.
In an interview with our correspondent, in Abuja, on Friday, Ndoma-Egba said, “I think the judiciary has to be more resourceful and more creative because we are sending a very wrong message.
“The message we are sending out is that our commitment to the fight against corruption and even terrorism is mere lip service.
“That is the message we are sending out. And then, there is of course, a more fundamental, philosophical and ethical issue.
“Now, when somebody who embezzled N27.2bn is asked to pay a fine of N750, 000, how do you convince a young man that crime does not pay?
“He would rather embezzle that amount of money, pay N750,000 and move on in life. So, we must be very careful as institutions.
“People might say it is the law, yes, I have looked at the law but the offences in my view, should carry weightier sentences. We cannot tolerate this level of corruption anymore.”
Following the public outcry against the light sentence handed Yusuf, an Assistant Director in the Police Pension Office, by the court, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission re-arrested the pension thief after the judgement.
While many Nigerians took to social networks like the Facebook and Twitter mocking the judgment, prominent lawyers and civil rights activists condemned it as a setback to the Federal Government’s anti-corruption crusade.
On Tuesday, one of the civil rights groups, Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre, demanded the probe of Talba for the light sentence.
Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress said the judgment was an indication that the judiciary could not be relied on to deliver the country from monumental corruption.
The court judgment enraged Nigerians some of whom took to the streets of Abuja, on Thursday, to register their anger.
A source close to the EFCC had told our correspondent that the commission, apparently embarrassed by the public outcry, moved swiftly to redeem its image.
The source who pleaded anonymity said, “We never expected what happened on Monday. The reactions that followed the judgment were embarrassing to us and that was why we quickly had to look into his files again and sniffed out things that we had overlooked. With those things, we had to rearrest him for fresh prosecution.”
When he was rearraigned, Justice Adamu Bello of an Abuja High Court ordered that Yusuf should be remanded in prison custody pending the hearing of his bail application.
The matter has been adjourned till March 1, 2013.