Anti-graft War: FG sets up prosecution team, rejects plea bargain

Minister of Justice Abubakar Malami has said the Nigerian government won’t allow anybody convicted of corruption to cop a plea in the on-going anti-corruption fight in the country.

“The office of the Attorney General of the Federation will not advocate plea bargain for anyone,” he said recently when receiving members of the Bring Back Our Girls in Abuja. Malami stated the government’s “strong commitment to ensuring punishment for offenders”.

Plea bargain, a process whereby a criminal defendant and the prosecutor reach a mutually satisfactory disposition, was first applied by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Some of the cases that ended up in plea bargains include that of former Chief Executive Officer of the Oceanic Bank, Mrs Cecelia Ibru who forfeited 199 assets and N190 billion, plus six months in jail; and that of former Governor Lucky Igbinedion.

The judiciary later adopted it in justice administration, particularly in high profile cases prosecuted by the EFCC.

Many Nigerians, have criticised plea bargain, describing it as alien to Nigeria, and a major reason corruption festers in the country.

“The concept is not only dubious but was never part of the history of our legal system — at least until it was surreptitiously smuggled into our statutory laws with the creation of the EFCC,” said former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Dahiru Musdapher.

Others, however, blame the concept on poor prosecution.

But the minister told the GROUP the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has set up a new national prosecution team to drive its resolve.

The BBOG, led by former education minister, Oby Ezekwezili, has been agitating for the rescue of about 300 girls Boko Haram terrorists abducted from the Chibok Government College, Borno, in April last year.

In the meeting, the group asked the federal government to declassify the report of the fact-finding committee that investigated the abduction of the girls last year.

Among the facts gleaned by the committee set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan, and headed by retired Brig Ibrahim Sambo, included the escape of 57 of the 276 girls, and the refusal of a senator from Borno to appear before the committee.

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Receiving the report, Jonathan promised to release the document to the public as fast as possible then.

But about 20 months after, the report details are yet to be out.