The EFCC lawyer who prosecuted former Governors Joshua Dariye and Jolly Nyame, Chief Rotimi Jacobs, SAN, has said the presidential pardon granted the ex-jailed governors is turning anti-graft war into a joke.
Mr Jacobs prosecuted both cases on behalf of the EFCC. He said he was disappointed in the decision of the Buhari regime in an interview with The Punch.
The senior lawyer said the message being conveyed was that prison was only for the poor, noting that this would embolden the younger generation to embrace fraud. He added that the pardon meant that both Dariye and Nyame could later run for elective offices.
Jacobs said, “This pardon means that they can hold offices and run for elections. It has turned the anti-corruption war into a joke. It is a setback against the fight against corruption. They are setting a bad example for the younger generation. This case went from the High Court to the Supreme Court and now the convicts are being pardoned.
“It will demoralise the judges, the investigators and the prosecutors. It sends a bad message to the youth and Nigerians as a whole.”
Former Governors Dariye and Nyame were jailed for stealing N1.16bn and N1.6bn, respectively.
Another EFCC official, who spoke to the newspaper and wished to remain anonymous, said the detective who handled Dariye’s case, Ilyasu Kwarbai, was hit in the head with the butt of the gun by overzealous supporters of the ex-governor when the case was being handled in Jos.
The EFCC official said, “The pardon for Dariye is demoralising. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) was the one who handled the case. He has an internal arrangement with the EFCC so his fee is not that much. However, the bulk of the money was spent on investigation. The case started from London. We had to fly there and lodge in hotels.
“Also, Peter Clark, a UK officer, was the star witness. He was the one who first arrested Dariye in 2004. We had to fly him here on several occasions to testify in Nigeria. Sometimes, when he arrived in Nigeria, the case would be adjourned for one flimsy reason or the other and he would have to travel back and then return to Nigeria.
“Clark was the one who revealed how Dariye bought a pen for £7,000 and was found with over £40,000, while his aide had about £50,000 on her. We spent hundreds of millions on this case. Kwarbai was attacked. The scar is still on his head. How will the UK take us seriously?”