The sensational life of a Lagos politician, Olabode Ibiyinka George, collapsed yesterday at the gate of a prison.
A Lagos High Court, Ikeja jailed the former chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and five others for two and half years each apiece without an option of fine. George is a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader.
Justice Olubunmi Oyewole sentenced them to two years on each of the seven-count charges of abuse of office and six months each for the other 27-count charge of disobedience to constituted authority. The jail sentences will run concurrently
The other convicts are former CEO of NPA Aminu Dabo, O. Abidoye, Abdullahi Tafida, Zanna Maideribe and Sule Aliyu.
They were driven out of the court premises in a prison pick-up van amidst threats from George’s supporters who shielded them from photographers.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arraigned the convicts on charges that bordered on wilful disobedience to constituted authority, contract splitting and conspiracy in August, last year.
They were, however, not found guilty on the other charges as the prosecution led by activist lawyer Mr. Festus Keyamo, the court noted in its findings, could not prove the commission of the offences alleged against them beyond reasonable doubt.
Mid way into the more than three hours judgment, one of those who stormed the court in apparent solidarity with the convicts slumped and was taken out to be revived. Mr Justice Oyewole went on with the delivery of the judgment.
In the course of the trial, the convicts had said they were not charged in their personal capacities but as members of the board of NPA and that unless shown, the board of NPA is a public office, and they should be acquitted.
But the court held: "The facts indisputably before the court are that the defendants are natural persons who were appointed to serve as directors on the board of the NPA, a public corporation owned solely by the Federal Government of Nigeria and established under an Act of the National Assembly….
"It is an evident fact upon which the court can take judicial notice that only natural persons are appointed to hold public offices and not corporate or incorporate bodies.
"Furthermore, the board of a corporation is an organ of that organisation and does not possess a corporate legal existence separate from that of the corporate body it belongs to. It cannot, as such, possess legal identity as to sue or be sued independently."
The court also knocked the convicts defence that they cannot be held liable for acts committed by their subordinates.
"Persons acknowledged out of millions of Nigerians by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to be of proven integrity and of cognitive experience in relation to the activities of the NPA cannot claim ignorance or simply play Pontius Pilate when obviously irregular contracts placed before them were approved by them without question. It amounts to wilful blindness and must have its consequences.
"By Section 10 (3)(b) and (5)(c) of the NPA Act the board of the NPA is given powers to control the managing director and executive directors of the NPA.
"The board was also given express powers in the said Act to obtain advice from non-members and co-opt such special members for specific purposes. Such a board cannot claim inadequacy. After all, as the ancient wisdom says; you cannot bear the title of eagle and be unable to prey on chickens. The culpability of the defendants in this regard is direct and not vicarious.
"I therefore reject the defence put forward by the defendants in this regard as totally untenable.
"I hold that the defendants while employed in the public service as chairman and directors respectively on the board of the NPA at the material times of exhibits D2 and D3 did approve split contracts. It is an arbitrary act which prejudiced the approving authorities superiority to the NPA board constituted by them at that time, and that they thereby abused their offices."
The convicts said they failed to abide by laid down financial regulations because it will affect the nation’s economy.
But Justice Oyewole disagreed, saying the convicts cannot be more Catholic than the Pope.
"The position of the learned prosecutor and the other prosecution witnesses was that while there may be good reasons to seek a presidential waiver in respect of the application of the said circular, flagrant disobedience was not the proper course of action.
"As appointees of the President of Nigeria, the defendants are subject to his direct and indirect authority.
"The authority behind the circular, exhibit P3, extends not only to the President but ultimately to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
"Paragraph 2 of the said circular begins with the following word:
‘After extensive consultations with stakeholders, the following guidelines are being issued to fully implement the new government policy.’
"An implication of the preamble is that exhibit P3 is not the product of some whim but based on wide consultations extending beyond the narrow purview of the NPA.
"The defendants cannot claim to be more Catholic than the Pope.
"While infallibility is beyond any man, the overall mandate to administer the polity, including the NPA, is that of the President and where government functionaries are at liberty to apply or reject government policies as they so will, anarchy would ensue. Such is the manifestation of a failed state."
Sentencing the convicts after their lawyers’ request for mitigation, Justice Oyewole said: "When public office is abused, the entire system is assaulted. This must not be treated with kid gloves, if the quality of service in our public life is to be attained to an appreciable standard of the civilised world.
"For the right deterrence to be served, therefore, sufficient firmness must be demonstrated."
Justice Oyewole rose immediately the sentence was pronounced.
Earlier, Mr Tunji Ayanlaja (SAN), George’s lead counsel, in his plea for mitigation, told the court that the conviction of his client on a technical charge could scare others who interested to serve the nation.
He pleaded that the court should not send the convicts to prison but caution and discharge them in order not to truncate their political careers even as it has not been shown that they benefited personally from the offences.
"I will like to draw your lordship’s attention to a comment that was made 47 years ago in a felony case in this court ‘blessed be your lordship’s judgment and your lordships pronouncement in this judgment.’
"I will urge your lordship to put this into consideration. Public service in our country today has been left to those who should not be there and those who have risked their lives to serve will have to bear the brunt of public service that is what this judgment has made obvious, that if you serve in public service you must bear the burden.
"The trial has taken 14 months, it has subjected the defendants to a lot of suspense and immense pressure. My lord, you will find out from the evidence that none of them has been accused of making profit or from making unjust enrichment from serving the mother land. You found them guilty on some of the counts; some of the counts are very, very technical in nature.
"Henceforth, if public servants are held to technical offence, nobody will take public service. My Lord, I want you to put into consideration that all the defendants have attended the trial as honest and committed Nigerians. None of them has been found guilty of any offence in serving the mother land before now.
"The first defendant (George) is somebody who served in different capacities. He was in the armed forces, a military governor of Ondo State and has not been accused of any criminal action. The pressure the trial has put on them is enough condemnation and I urge your Lordship not to put a comma on their public career so that they can still offer their services to the nation. All the time they were acting they thought they were acting in the interest of the nation. I urge your lordship to be very lenient to all the accused persons. I know it is in your power to caution and discharge them because the offence is so technical and no evidence that the nation lost anything by the decision they took.
"The silence in the court room shows that what is being considered is very serious and you have shown a strong signal to the whole country that it is no longer business-as-usual. The Bar has been enriched by this judgment."
Ayanlaja urged the court to apply Solomon’s wisdom in handling the matter, instead of destroying the political careers of the convicts.
Other silk lawyers in court are: Deacon Dele Adesina, Otunba Kunle Kalejaiye and Bolaji Ayorinde.
Adesina, in his allocutus, described Dabo as a professional architect who still has the zeal to serve even as he described the demeanour of all the other accused as remorseful.
