The attention of the All Nigeria Peoples Party [ANPP] has been drawn to widely reported news yesterday that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has entered into ‘discussion’ with Mahmud Tukur, son of the PDP National Chairman, Bamanga Tukur, alongside Abdullahi Alao, son of business tycoon, Arisekola Alao, and Alex Ochonogor, over their role in the fuel subsidy scam. This is in a bid to secure a plea bargain for the suspects. Their company, Eternal Oil and Gas Plc, allegedly obtained N1.9billion from Petroleum Support Fund for a purported importation of 80.3million litres of petrol; and EFCC had said it never imported the petrol. In as much as our great party believes in the sacrosanctity of the law of the land, and its instrument and processes, we are nevertheless strongly convinced that entering into a plea bargain with suspects in the opprobrious fuel subsidy scam is tantamount to another daylight robbery of the Nigerian people.
It is an incontrovertible truth that investigations into the fuel subsidy regime and the subsequent mindboggling revelations about the robbery of the Nigerian people were brought about by the nationwide demonstrations of the masses early this year when the Federal Government demonstrated gross insensitivity by removing the subsidy on fuel. In other words, it was the people that inspired the ongoing arraignment of the subsidy fraudsters. Hence, it is to the people that they should refund all that have been stolen from them.
Granted, the purpose of plea bargain under the Criminal Procedure Act and section 13[2] of the EFCC Act is mostly asset recovery; but the peculiar political atmosphere in Nigeria is sure to make mockery of this legal procedure as serial criminals enmeshed in manifest raids of the peoples commonwealth use it to meander out of the net of justice. This was no doubt what inspired the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Honourable Justice Dahiru Musdapher, on the 14th of November, 2011, to describe the application of Plea Bargain in the Nigerian context as being of ‘‘dubious origin’’, explaining later that he was referring to ‘‘the sneaky motive behind its introduction into our legal system, or its evident fraudulent application’’.
The ANPP therefore emphatically states that any misapplication of plea bargain in the ongoing fuel subsidy fraud court cases amounts to a second fraud on the good citizens of this great nation. We call for judicial vigilance on the part of the people; and also call on the National Assembly, as the people’s representative, to ensure that this new development in the subsidy cases do not set the stage for a massive shortchanging of the Federal Republic by indicted subsidy fraudsters. It is either they refund the monies they stole in full, or they face the full wrath of the law.
Signed:
Hon Emma Eneukwu
National Publicity Secretary
ANPP
15-11-12
