Abuja — THE immediate past Inspector-General of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun, was yesterday sentenced to a four-year jail term by a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja. He had pleaded guilty to an amended eight-count criminal charge of failing to comply with lawful enquiries by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) into his acquisition of landed properties in Lagos and Abuja and his acquisition of large number of publicly quoted shares in blue chip companies.

He was convicted having agreed that his conduct contravened section 38 (2) (b) of the EFCC Establishment Act, 2004 which reads: "A person who fails to comply with any lawful enquiry or requirements made by any authorised officer in accordance with the provisions of this Act, commits an offence under this Act and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or to a fine not below the sum of N500,000 or to both such imprisonments and fine."

Justice Binta Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja also ordered the forfeiture of all his assets which were the subject matter of the trial.

Besides the jail term and forfeiture of his assets, the judge ordered Balogun to pay a total fine of N4 million.

Justice Nyako said Balogun would spend six months behind the bars for each of the eight-count charge. But she said the jail term would run concurrently, adding that the calculation of the jail term would also take into account the 67 days he had earlier spent in detention while he was awaiting trial. By implication, Balogun is to spend six months, less 67 days, in Kuje prison as a convict.

But moments after judgment, Balogun, in an emotion-laden voice said: "I will serve the jail term. I will serve it. But all I know is that the permanent feature of life is that it is full of galloping. It is full of ups and downs, downs and ups. At a time, I was up the ladder. Now, it is the reverse. But I will bounce back. Hun..hun.. I say I will definitely bounce back."

Yesterday was the first time Balogun pleaded guilty to any of the charges preferred against him by the EFCC since his trial started seven and a half months ago. Also yesterday, eight companies charged alongside the former police boss on April 4, this year when Balogun's travail began, showed up in court for the first time following an advertisement in a national daily that anyone having interests in them including directorship and shareholding should come to court to defend the criminal charges against them.

As soon as they were charged with Balogun in April this year, he not only said he had no link with them, he also disowned them. But yesterday, all the companies were duly represented in court by a counsel, Omolara Adu and were slammed with a 48-count charge of laundering money for him. The companies are Yeboa Investment Limited, Caledonian Telecommunications Limited, Renovations Construction Limited, Aworo Investment Limited, Olatrade Limited, Yeboa Nigeria Limited, Ceejay Properties Nigeria Limited and Ivory Ventures Limited.

Each of them was accused of having been used by Balogun to transfer huge sums of money illegally by him to buy shares in his name in a number of blue chip companies. Sources of illegal payments made into the eight companies were said to have fallen into three categories. All the companies were said to be registered for the sole purpose of laundering money for Balogun.

While they were being arraigned, all the eight companies told the court while entering a plea of guilt, that it was true that Balogun used them to siphon money from the accounts of the Nigeria Police; that it was a fact that they were used to collect kick backs from a lot of contractors of the Nigeria Police Force, that it was a fact that they collected induced gifts on behalf of Balogun and that they used all such monies to invest in different blue chip companies in the name of Balogun.

For instance, they confessed to have invested a large chunk of the money into buying of shares in various companies, treasury bills, properties and commercial papers in some banks. They also confessed yesterday that a reasonable amount of the said money was lodged into Call Deposit Account, Bankers Acceptance Account with some used in buying of shares in First Bank, Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria Limited among others to the tune of several millions of naira in the name of Balogun.

They also confessed to have bought a lot of properties in the name of Balogun in Lagos and Abuja including Shakir Plaza located at 1029, Cadastral Zone and Yashua Plaza both in Abuja. They also agreed that their conducts contravened section 14 (1) (a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004 which reads: "Any person who converts or transfers resources or properties derived directly or indirectly from illicit traffic in narcotic drugs and psychotropics substances or any other crimes or illegal act with the aim of either concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the resources or property or aiding any person involved in the illicit traffic in narcotic drugs psychotropic substances or any other crime or illegal act to evade the illegal consequences of his action (b) collaborates in concealing or disguising the genuine nature, origin, location disposition, movement or ownership of the resources property or right thereto derived directly or indirectly from illicit traffic in narcotic drugs or psychotropic substance or any other crime or illegal act."

Each of them consequently pleaded guilty to each of the charges in writing and same was tendered in court by their counsel. Justice Nyako did not waste time to convict each of the companies with Balogun.

But before Justice Nyako sentenced Balogun and each of the eight companies yesterday, he listened to a lengthy allocutus from counsel to both the police and the eight companies. Pleading for leniency for Balogun, his lead counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), said: "Section 38 (2) (b) of the EFCC Act under which my client has been convicted following his plea of guilt recommends imprisonment for a term not exceeding a five-year jail term or a fine not below the sum of half a million naira.

"The law says the court can sentence to both. I urge the court to realise that when the law says maximum of five years, whatever the court considers fit and proper would be the maximum. With respect to fine, the court is slightly restrained. It says not below half a million. It is the reverse of the terms of imprisonment. Both are in the alternative. We urge the court to exercise its discretion on one not on both terms prescribed by law.

"An accused person who pleads guilty attracts sympathy of the court because a plea of guilt is a demonstration of remorsefulness. The court tends to have sympathy on them. I also urge the court to consider the followings: the pronouncement of conviction by this court on Tafa having regards to his status before the criminal proceedings constitutes an indelible stain both nationally and internationally; ordinarily, the refusal to answer enquiries by the EFCC ought not to be a crime given the provision of the constitution but the EFCC has made it a crime. As a lawyer, he knows it is not a crime; that Tafa did not mean to commit a crime since he is a lawyer who knows that not answering to enquiries does not constitute a crime and to convict him is itself a serious punishment or indictment being a legal practitioner; the prosecution has said that he is just a first offender. He has no record of conviction. I urge the court under section 74 of the Evidence Act to take cognisance of the fact that he had served Nigeria for 32 years of his 58 years on earth," he said.

Awomolo continued: "The convict (Tafa) has suffered unprecedented public humiliation. By a man of his status, he has suffered severe damage even in his physique and in health. In April when we came before this court, he was healthier than this. He has also suffered a lot of trauma, anxiety. He has been in detention for 67 days. I urge the court to consider all these in sentencing him. If he is given another opportunity to lead a life again, he will not commit this crime again. He will lead a life of responsible citizen. He will rise from today to join the brigade against corruption. He will be a vanguard of measured character. We urge the court to temper mercy with justice," Awomolo said and stood down.

Counsel to the eight companies, Adu, similarly pleaded for leniency for her clients. She prayed the court not to wind them up or order the forfeiture of their assets, saying some of the companies assets were legally acquired. At this point, the judge rose for about an hour to write her judgment.

Giving judgment in the case, Justice Nyako first reviewed the case before sentencing each of the accused persons in the case to different terms. Immediately after the judge rose, counsel to EFCC, Mr Rotimi Jacobs said: "This is another attempt by the EFCC to tell the world that we really mean business. However highly placed you are, you can't commit crime and go scot-free again in this country.

"And everybody should know that this battle against corruption is not selective. If anybody is close to the president, I think it is the former Inspector-General of Police before he had this problem. If this war against corruption were to be a selective one, surely Balogun would never be charged to court. It is a message to the world that there is no sacred cow. EFCC is prepared to charge anybody for flouting the law of the land. That is the message

"He is the highest office holder that has been convicted so far by the EFCC and we started this trial this year. And you could see the conviction. It shows to the world that we are serious about this battle to fight corruption."

Immediately Jacobs finished addressing newsmen, one of the counsel to Balogun, Dr Tunji Abayomi, said of the trial and the judgment: "Mr Tafa Balogun has been in court in defence of certain charges preferred against him in the federal and state high courts by EFCC, a federal agency set up principally to investigate financial crime as it is found in section 6 of the EFCC Act 1 of 2004. During this period of trial, Mr. Tafa Balogun suffered tremendous set back in his well-being as a result of the prosecution. There was a time he was admitted for several weeks in the hospital. The initial charges rotate around diverse allegations which were subject to propandance of proof, Mr. Tafa Balogun has pleaded not guilty to these charges and was determined to put up defence.

"On 13th October, 2005, the charges against him was, however, amended. A new charge under section 38(2) relating. I want to emphasis on relating to willful obstruction of the Commission's work as a result of non disclosure of failure to comply with enquiries was preferred against him. His life is more than food and body is much more than garment. We see no rational to push ahead the satire that is already onerous and may admit much toil and discomfort with all the unpredictable consequences for justice. I want to emphasis that Mr. Tafa Balogun did not plead to stealing of N17 billion as glamorously reported by certain newspaper.

"The Nigeria Police Force or any of its agencies has not claimed the loss of the N17 billion nor is there any evidence of the absence from its budgetary allocation for such a huge amount of money. EFCC in spite of judicious newspaper reports in some circumstances has not claimed to have found such huge amount of money in Mr. Tafa Balogun's possession nor its evidence before the court to that effect. Mr. Tafa Balogun has decided to cling to the charge of failure to comply to enquiries all in all because this option was considered by him to be the better part of wisdom in all the circumstances of the case and especially in the interest of personal well being."

Tafa has another case to answer, says EFCC

Notwithstanding the conviction of the former IG, the EFCC in a statement yesterday vowed to pursue the other cases against him to a logical conclusion.

Spokesman for the Commission, Osita Nwajah, in a statement said: "This afternoon (yesterday), the former Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Adebayo Mustafa Balogun, pleaded guilty to charges preferred against him in court by EFCC. He was subsequently convicted and sentenced by Justice Binta Murtala Nyako to six months in prison.

"The former IG, in addition to spending six months in jail, would forfeit all his assets running into billions of Naira. Until now, he had denied ownership of the billions of Naira, properties and other assets. It is important to note that this conviction brings to an end, only one of the two cases EFCC had instituted against the former IG. The Commission will pursue the second case before Justice Salisu Garba of the Abuja High Court, to its logical conclusion. We also hope to secure conviction in that matter. If it is not decided before he serves his term, the former IG will attend court from prison.

"The conviction of Alhaji Balogun is a decisive victory for the Federal Government's war on corruption which is driven by no other than President Olusegun Obasanjo himself. EFCC and the Federal Government have faced orchestrated vilification for taking the unprecedented action of trying to bring somebody with the professional, ethnic, religious stature and nuisance value of the former IG.

"The Commission was not deterred and pursued the cases against the former IG with the singular conviction that Nigeria deserved a better deal from those in positions of authority. The conviction and sentencing of Alhaji Balogun, marks a watershed in our fight against corruption: the former chief law enforcement officer whose duty it was to check fraud, corrupt practices and other crimes, is now in jail for abusing his office and betraying the trust of millions of Nigerians."