Labour party chief kicks against plea bargain, worried over economic downturn

The National Chairman of the Labour Party (LP), Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, yesterday kicked against allowing those accused of stealing public funds to go scot-free through a plea-bargain in the court of law.

Speaking with The Guardian in Abuja, Abdulsalam argued that allowing those who stole public funds to exploit the plea-bargain option is akin to encouraging corrupt practices the more in the polity.

The party chief particularly expressed surprise at reports that some highly-placed Nigerians facing various charges of corrupt practices were making plea-bargain overtures to government to secure their freedom.

Piqued by the situation, he said: “In the first place, why would somebody who stole public funds be making offers to return some of the money he/she looted from what belongs to Nigerians? 

“Plea-bargain is more or less like encouraging corruption, because the implication of allowing this to happen is that people would go out of their ways to steal monies from public purse, knowing fully well that they can always refund an insignificant percentage of their loot to regain their freedom, so that they can enjoy the larger portion of what they looted.

“This is unacceptable. There should not be anything like plea-bargain if the government is serious about tackling corruption.” Abdulsalam, who acknowledged that cases involving those accused of corrupt practices could take years before it can be dispensed with, canvassed a reform of the country’s legal system instead of going for the plea-bargain option.

He described the anti-corruption campaign of the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government as “sectional, discriminatory and malicious,” noting that it was unfortunate that the campaign was yet to be holistic in its entirety. 

He said: “In Buhari’s government, there are corrupt people that have been mentioned, yet he is focusing on those who used government money to campaign for former President Goodluck Jonathan. 

He has forgotten that in the APC states, governors used states’ monies to sponsor his campaign, yet we have seen that his anti-graft campaign doesn’t affect those ones. “Even at that, Buhari should not tell Nigerians that he has no corrupt ministers in his cabinet. “I think he is not sincere; he is economical with the truth.”

He added: “The economy is getting worse by the day; it is biting harder and harder. Nigerians are now in a deep state of penury and it seems the President is not doing anything to reverse the situation. He seemed not to understand the Nigerian economy and what is going on.

“There is no proper economic blueprint that could be relied upon. The economy is going down the drain and I have not seen anything of hope in Buhari and APC government,” he stated.