 Are Nigerian's Attorney-General's in cahoots with criminals? Over the years, we've all read about individuals who were found guilty of stealing large sums of money, or young boys found guilty of stealing money from abroad. A few weeks later, they've been bailed and nothing more is heard of their cases. Yet, petty criminals are arrested and jailed for many years, some without trials. Is it because crimes pays more nowadays in Nigeria? And the more you steal, the more you're likely to stay out of jail because you can basically buy your way out of trouble. Just take the case a few weeks ago regarding three former civil servants who were convicted of stealing 450 million error. The prosecutor felt the best punishment for them would be a four-year jail term or an option to pay a fine of 2 million error. Yes, you heard correctly, 2 million error only. They stole over 450 million from the Nigerian people and our prosecutors. The people who are meant to defend and look after our interests thought the best punishment for them would be to pay a fine of 2 million error. To me, this is a massive miscarriage of justice and a slap in the face of Nigerians and the investigators who had worked hard to bring these thieves to court. But why would the government or the attorney generals whose office is responsible to jail these criminals do such a thing? Well, Nigeria is called plea bargaining. This simply means there's an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant where the defendant pleads guilty to a lesser offence in exchange for some concession by the prosecutor and a dismissal of any other cases or charge. I should mention the plea bargaining is under the power of the office of the attorney general under the rules and regulation of the Nigerian law. However, the condition regarding plea bargaining under the AFCC Act stated that notwithstanding anything in this law or any other law the attorney general of the state shall have the power to consider and accept a plea bargain from a person charged with any offence where the attorney general is of the view that the incentives of such a plea bargain is in the public interest, the interest of justice and the need to prevent abuse of legal process. With this description, one could say that any previous cases that had been settled with the plea bargain and that of the stolen 450 million error, the only interest the attorney general of Nigeria have shown is payers for themselves and not the public interest at all. I hope these attorney generals understand they have caused society by giving such judgments because they are basically telling Nigerians that crimes pays as long as you're ready to share your looted monies. It's actually funny when you see the uplands and the reality in time and I think what we should also be looking at is supposed to be blamed. We see the reality in play now and there is need for us to work up as a citizen of the country to actually know, be safe aware of what is happening so that we know how to deal with it. So the last of the plea bargain, when you look at it, how long has it been in existence? Who plays, who voted it in and what is the advantage and disadvantages? We are obviously seeing the disadvantage of the plea bargain and then how do we resolve it? What's the next stage? To answer you, the plea bargain started when independence came into Nigeria. Some people actually fought against it because they understand the Nigerian mentality that we were too young to understand and to handle the plea bargain. In my write-up, we can see how the plea bargain actually favours the thieves, the criminal and the attorney general's office because it doesn't please the public. Basically, what they're basically telling us is you can steal and get away with it as long as you share some of the money with us and it's not just about these four civil servants. What about the boys that are doing the funny business that Yahoo! Yahoo! are brought? They steal money, they bring it to this country, they know that, they've known through history, through time, through this plea bargain that the money they've stolen, if they're ready to do deals with the attorney general's or so, they will let them go, which is sending a wrong image to our people, to our youth. Let me stretch it for that. It's not only in that format. I think you can somewhat liken it to what is happening in the river states, illegal oil bunkering. Yes, it applies to that as well. Sorry, illegal refinery. Not all your oil bunkering is illegal. So it is illegal refinery. So the same thing. They ask NCDC to protect the pipelines, right? And some of the members or officials of these law enforcement agencies are found wanting. They allow these people to go and steal sabotage and bunker and then they collect their own. It's destroying us before plea bargain came into the Nigerian legal system. What the Nigerian government used to do, if you're convicted of being a thief in any way, shape or form, everything is confiscated from you. You're now back to zero. Even if you worked for it legitimately before, before you got into the mess of financial scandal, they collect everything and teach you a lesson. But now the legal system is telling Nigerians hey, it's okay to steal. As long as you're ready to give us some back, we don't mind. To me, when I heard of that deal before, like okay, bring some back, we are pardoned. It's if it's a thief. Somebody will steal. I think some time ago in Lagos, if it was during lockdown, if I'm not mistaken, or there was a boy that was born to date. I don't know if you remember. What did he steal, Grady? Is this some couple? He's a child. And guess what? If somebody steals food, it's not an indication that a person is hungry. And yet, we glorify these same thieves that call them safe government. Exactly. And that now brings us back to the insecurity issue and the business and the ability that we've been discussing over time. When we know that there are loopholes, especially promoted by government, and you see people trying to set an example, living by the example of what they can see, and what does that translate to? We are going to be exposed to a lot of insecurity in the country, as against us being trying to be mutual to ourselves. Now, I know if I steal, if I do yow yow, I will probably smart play another person in the name of love. I steal money. I have a government policy or a kind of a law that I can hide under. Yes. And I will get away with it. You still keep the money, you're stolen. Because I will keep the money I stole, right? So far, I can do the play bagging game. So if I can do that, I can go to any length to do that. To be a criminal, basically. Before you know it, you see people doing rituals, just to like say, okay, let me get this, let me protect myself in effect this way. So far, I'm going to get a play bagging to make it, you know, sometimes they call it cleaning the money. You understand? You're wondering the body. So you just clean the money due to a lot of things, actually. I mean, the biggest one for me, sorry to interrupt you. The biggest one for me is like the message that they're sending the police and everything. Because the police will work hard. They know who these criminals are. They'll work hard to have them arrested and charge them to court. And then they'll see the same criminals a few weeks later, driving a big car and everything and living their life. And the police will probably think, okay, if I'm going to do this work, instead of these lawyers that I'm working for to let them go, let me do a deal with them. I'll have them arrested. I'll say to you, my brother, we know you're a thief. We know you're doing oil, we know you're not meant to have this money. You too, you know it. Instead of me charging you to court or so, I'll forget it. Give me some of my own money. Because the police and the investigators have seen what could happen if they let the case go to court. A prosecutor, an attorney general, will now do a deal with them. And they're probably thinking, instead of this criminal giving them the money, I want the money, which affects society. So it's basically saying crime pays. Yes, it's saying that. That is the message that is good to be smart, devilishly smart, devilishly smart. It's good to cheat the system because it pays you. That's exactly what the government did. I think what I think to solve this problem, I think the government should have a strict policy against corruption in all forms of it. And on the other hand, they should encourage people with the right values. People with the right values should be encouraged and awarded. Yes, I totally agree. What happens, I said this on this show some time ago, what happens to national award, like MON and all those things, you just give it to any Tom Dica Harry. Yes, I know there are some respectable Nigerians that have those things, they deserve it. But there are some other people I think are not deserving it. So I should rebrand our opportunity. Exactly, just to support what you said, I think the government should look into policies that are more strict to punish who are guilty of such offensives. Of seeking properties if possible. Yes, it has to be. Because as it's happening at the high level, for people who steal a lot, you can see it happening at the micro level as well, where you see somebody stealing a phone and it's a phone of probably 50,000 Naira and say, yes, I stole this phone, confess and you take them to court and what you see is, pay a fine of 10,000 and the case is gone. And you also see... Doesn't make sense. Exactly, as a bargain. And you also see another prosecution where somebody stole an N and is just left in prison without... without any... Because there is no parking, there is nothing to actually treat. Yeah, so we are going to try our best to hold the government accountable, whatever we do, whatever they do for us. And the policies that are being made at the same time we citizens too which we ensure we do the right thing and forcing positive values in the society. We thank you for your attention why the program lasted. 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