IN what is considered a major boost to the anti-graft crusade, courts may no longer entertain plea bargain as an option to settle corruption cases in the country. At the Fifth Annual General Conference of the Section on Legal Practice of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, surprised many by his display of candour on many issues, including the controversial plea bargain, holding charge, and interlocutory injunctions, in the nations justice system. Plea bargain, according to the CJN, is a novel concept of dubious origin. It has no place in our lawsubstantive or procedural. It was invented to provide soft landing to high-profile criminals who loot the treasury entrusted to them. It is an obstacle to our fight against corruption. The CJN has also advised judges to ensure that graft cases were disposed of within six months.The apex court is moving in the right direction. Bargaining with justice, like a commodity, rather than a highly valued societal goal, has drawn a lot of criticism from several directions. Justice Kayode Eso, a former Justice of the Supreme Court, had earlier voiced his strong opposition to the importation of plea bargain into the nations legal system. The respected jurist said, There is no plea bargain in our law. The importation is wrong. To me, it is corruption to bring plea bargain into our law. Lagos is said to be the only state in Nigeria where the plea bargain option has been enacted into law since 2007.The views expressed by both the CJN and Eso exposed an unholy preoccupation of the Federal Government from 2005 to date. Without any amendment of the Criminal Procedure Code, the anti-graft agencies, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, have entered into ridiculous plea bargains with corrupt public officials. In July, 2007, the Federal Ministry of Justice and the EFCC sealed a plea bargain deal with the then Bayelsa State Governor, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who had been arraigned on December 21, 2005 on 40 counts of money laundering, illegal acquisition of property and false declaration of assets.The charges were reduced to six; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a two-year imprisonment. Having spent as much time in detention, he regained freedom immediately, forfeiting some landed property. Among other celebrated cases were those of a former Edo State Governor, Lucky Igbinedion; a former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, and, lately, Mrs. Cecilia Ibru, the former Managing Director of Oceanic Bank International. Corporate organisations indicted in multi-billion naira bribery scandals and let off the hook via plea bargain or out-of-court-settlement include Siemens, Halliburton, Transocean Incorporation and Noble Incorporation. Through the CJN, the truth about plea bargain is now public knowledge.Yet, successive Attorneys-General and Ministers of Justice, including the incumbent, Mohammed Adoke, failed in their duty to alert the Federal Government to its illegality. Indeed, Adoke had in 2010 declared, with much satisfaction, a deal sealed with Siemens, the German multinational that was indicted for bribes paid to Nigerian officials. In a statement, he said: In consideration of the companys sober expression of regret and solemn undertaking to be of good conduct in all its future business dealings, agreement to pay the penal fine of N7 billion, the government has agreed to discontinue the criminal prosecution it instituted against Siemens.The problem with the nations justice system is its one-sidedness. In all the plea bargain cases documented thus far, the Federal Government actually provided soft landing for highly placed individuals who had grossly abused public trust through criminal self-enrichment. Whereas the criminal justice system has been at its harshest to ordinary citizens whose offences are of comparatively little consequence to the society, individuals who stifle the potential for infrastructure development, quality social services and economic growth through criminal diversion of public funds, walk away with very mild punishment. As Eso once queried, why should treasury looters be given some hairy-fairy punishment while ordinary citizens are subjected to the maximum weight of the law'The question at the heart of this is: Why did it take so long for the Supreme Court to make a decisive pronouncement on the illegal practice' Regrettably, for several years, corruption among high court judges and magistrates, often the cause of several outrageous injunctions had been a source of distress to citizens. Rather than serve as a deterrent, plea bargain has become an encouragement for state governors and other public officials to steal. Despair has been widespread, given the critical importance of the judiciary in the preservation of basic liberties, promotion of the ideals of democratic governance and defence of the nations Constitution.The CJN has thus taken a commendable step towards the restoration of judicial credibility in the country. He has set the moral tone for a new dispensation in the judiciary and should be encouraged by all key stakeholders, particularly members of the Bar and Bench, as well as prosecuting agencies. The practice of plea bargain is unconstitutional, an illegal act that tends to increase corruption, collusion and to pollute the pure fount of justice.
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