Leadership (Abuja)
Chika Otuchikere
14 September 2008
A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, has called for the law enforcement agents to mete out the same degree of treatment on criminals, irrespective of their status in society.
Eyiboh, who spoke with Leadership Sunday, made allusion to a statement credited to the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole, where the speaker attempted to make a distinction between pick pockets and armed robbers.
A criminal, Eyiboh averred, should be seen and treated as a criminal in spite of his status or what his crime is.
The Akwa-Ibom state-born legislator condemned the practice where a Nigerian who steals a few thousand naira is clamped in detention indefinitely while the public servant who loots millions of public fund is granted bail after a few days in detention.
In his words "There is no difference between the pick-pocket who steals a few naira and the government officials who steals millions of naira.
Both of them are criminals and so, they should be treated equally. We need to get to that level where the man who steals money, whether he is a public servant, politician or just a petty thief is treated in the same way.
"There is no difference between the pick-pocket and the armed robber. The speaker's media aides would have tried to clarify that statement so that it was no misrepresented".
Hon. Eyiboh still took time to debunk the allegation that members of the House of Representatives cart home over N10 million monthly as constituency projects allowance.
He presented his August salary so that this reporter could confirm the actual amount slated as constituency project allowance which was about N163,000.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Leadership. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
