National Issues
Jailbreak In Daylight -By Kene Obiezu
On April 14, 2022, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria`s president, presided over a meeting of the National Council of States at the presidential villa in Abuja. At that meeting, the decision to pardon Mr. Dariye and Mr. Nyame was reached. They were among 159 convicts who were pardoned by the president after supposedly scaling the hurdles placed by law.
In a country of contradictions, clowns and cyclops would get into bed sooner just sooner than thieves and titans would. With what is deemed fit for one, dismissively deemed unfit for another under the same set of circumstances, an unequal country has been born, and everyday, it is from the breasts of inequity and injustice that the beast continues to suckle and blossom, eagerly biding its time to pounce.
A tale of two thieves
In June 2018,following her findings that Joshua Dariye, former Governor of Plateau State and Senator representing Plateau Central in the 9th Assembly stole 1.16 billion naira from the coffers of Plateau State while in office as Governor, Adebukola Banjoko, then a judge of the FCT High Court sentenced him to twelve years in prison.
In May 2018, Jolly Nyame, former Governor of Taraba State, was also found guilty of stealing the sum of 1.6 billion and sentenced to fourteen years in prison
Both cases took the EFCC a staggering eleven years to prosecute and cost millions of naira in tax payers` funds as some of the witnesses who testified in both matters had to be flown in from other countries and on some of those days, the courts did not sit.
When both cases meandered their way through the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court with the convicts no doubt using some of the stolen billions to higher Senior Advocates of Nigeria, the Supreme Court found nothing to warrant a disturbance of the judgment. The sentences were only slightly altered, so off to the Medium Security Correction facility in Kuje the convicts went.
A banquet of justice
For the good people of Plateau and Taraba States, the prosecution, conviction and incarceration of the men who had ripped their treasuries to shreds brought much relief.
The jailing of the two men who were governors of their states between 1999-2007 when the PDP institutionalized political corruption in Nigeria was also a message clearly sent to would-be thieves that thieving impunity would not be tolerated.
But that was all before an elitist conspiracy many years in the making took shape.
Honour among thieves.
On April 14, 2022, Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria`s president, presided over a meeting of the National Council of States at the presidential villa in Abuja. At that meeting, the decision to pardon Mr. Dariye and Mr. Nyame was reached. They were among 159 convicts who were pardoned by the president after supposedly scaling the hurdles placed by law.
The decision which came out of nowhere jolted Nigerians awake to the harrowing reality that a government which has always preached anti-corruption had handed down pardons to two former governors who shockingly abused their office to steal their people blind.
On August 7, 2022, just slightly shy of four months since the pardon was granted, and just over a month since the horrific attacks on the correctional facility where they were held, both former governors have been released, much to the consternation of a country ripped apart corruption.
A jamboree of thieves
There have been speculations that with the 2023 general elections quickly approaching, the pardon given to both men had something to do with bolstering the APC`s dwindling electoral fortunes.
Both men, now members of the APC, were in the not-too-distant past members of the PDP. Their pardon only adds fuel to the prevailing belief that those who plunder public funds only need to worm their way into the ruling party to escape the wheels of justice.
If Nigerians did not know that the fight against corruption touted by Muhammadu Buhari and his propagandists was long dead and buried, the pardon has proven to be a harsh reminder.
The pardon has also exposed sections of the Nigerian society as deeply decadent.
Immediately the pardon was announced back in April, some supporters of the two former governors announced plans to roll out the drums to celebrate the release of those they consider heroes from what they dubbed an unjust incarceration. To say more about these people and their psyche would be to speak about the dead.
However, having waited for four months for the drummers, dancers, flutists and caterers to take center stage in welcoming their heroes, they must be made to wait no more to celebrate the return of their plunderers, and the demise of their consciences.
While the billionaire looters return, the good people of Taraba and Plateau will do well to keep vigil by their treasuries.
Kene Obiezu
Twitter: @kenobiezu
