Light Sentence: “How do you convince a young man that crime does not pay?” Senator Asks

Pension cLeader of the Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) has urged the Nigerian judiciary to be more resourceful in order to avoid sending wrong messages to the world.

Ndoma-Egba was speaking against the backdrop of the recent judgment passed by a High Court in Abuja, in which a pension thief, Mr. John Yakubu Yusuf, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment with an option of N750, 000 bail for conniving with others to steal N27.2bn from the Police Pension Office.

In an interview granted to the Punch in Abuja, on Friday, Ndoma-Egba said, “I think the judiciary has to be more resourceful and more creative because we are sending a very wrong message… The message we are sending out is that our commitment to the fight against corruption and even terrorism is mere lip service.

“That is the message we are sending out. And then, there is of course, a more fundamental, philosophical and ethical issue… Now, when somebody who embezzled N27.2bn is asked to pay a fine of N750, 000, how do you convince a young man that crime does not pay? He would rather embezzle that amount of money, pay N750,000 and move on in life. So, we must be very careful as institutions.

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