Nigeria: Two Kinds of Justice

26 October 2010
column

The Nigeria Police and the Judiciary have played their separate but almost equal roles in ensuring Nigerians believe that 'justice' does not exist. What else can explain the results of a poll carried out by CLEEN Foundation where 44 per cent of those who reported their experiences of crime to the police said they were dissatisfied with the handling of the cases? Judging from the last few editions of THISDAY LAWYER and the tone of articles in our newspapers, it is quite possible that if the same poll was carried out on the experiences of citizens with the judiciary, we would get similar results.

When the story of Mrs. Cecilia Ibru's sentence broke a few weeks ago, it was unanimous, at least on radio that justice had not been served. Callers were completely indignant about the six months she would have to spend in jail after negotiating the return of assets worth N191 billion. The general consensus was that it was likely that she had taken more than she was returning and that it was a bad signal to the fight against corruption that a person who was bold enough to misappropriate so much could get a mere rap on the knuckles. After all, six months imprisonment to be spent in a hospital is hardly fair punishment for what she has done.

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