Registering her absolute disgust with the way the man of God looted Taraba State, Judge Banjoko who carefully delivered the judgment that lasted several hours posited that Rev. Nyame acted like ‘Ali Baba and the forty thieves. The judicial nailing of Rev. Jolly Nyame at the altar of justice is a perfect scenario of how not to fight corruption in Nigeria because the mill of justice in his case, like many others grinded too ridiculously slow. This is a nasty angle to fighting corruption. How could a man like Nyame evade justice for ten years, yet he turned away from the future to refabricate the past which Buhari government detests, in the name of conspiracy, falsehood and incalculable betrayal of public trust?
For more than ten years, Reverend Jolly Nyame savored his loot from the commonwealth of Taraba State without caring a hoot.
He exploited the short comings and loopholes within the legal system to the tilt, using the billions he recklessly and mindlessly embezzled to buy his way while he continued to sing hallelujah within and outside the capital city of Jalingo.
Nyame is a typical paradox of how not to be a man of God because of his suffocated attitude of stealing public funds and the incredible betrayal/dimension he introduced to siphoning state resources to better his personal interests.
Nyame spat on the altar of the almighty God, defecated within the sanctuary of the holies and engaged the holy bible to drench his buttocks as a result of his terrible handling of the affairs of the people of Taraba State between 1999 and 2007.
As a man of God he ought to have known that the judgement of God must come even though it can be delayed. When nemesis finally caught up with him in an Abuja High Court on May 30th, 2018, there was nothing he could do than to stare blankly into the ceiling within the Court room and beckoned on his attorney to have a heart-to-heart chat before the waiting black Maria drove closer to pick him to the prison where he would cool off for the next twenty four years.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) began investigating his financial atrocities and blatant official profligacy since May 2007. They found culpable for an alleged diversion of public funds and consequently charged him to court on 41 counts.
In finding him guilty the presiding Judge, Adebukola Banjoko of the Federal Capital Territory High Court said Nyame must go to jail for 27 counts for ‘receiving gratification, obtaining public funds without due consideration, criminal breach of trust and gratification.’
The Judge ruled that Jolly Nyame should refund the sum of N1.64 billion he stole from the coffers of Taraba State government, and that as his sentence would run concurrently which means he will only stay behind bars for 14 years, until a higher court decide otherwise.
Registering her absolute disgust with the way the man of God looted Taraba State, Judge Banjoko who carefully delivered the judgment that lasted several hours posited that Rev. Nyame acted like ‘Ali Baba and the forty thieves.’
The judicial nailing of Rev. Jolly Nyame at the altar of justice is a perfect scenario of how not to fight corruption in Nigeria because the mill of justice in his case, like many others grinded too ridiculously slow.
This is a nasty angle to fighting corruption. How could a man like Nyame evade justice for ten years, yet he turned away from the future to refabricate the past which Buhari government detests, in the name of conspiracy, falsehood and incalculable betrayal of public trust?
As a ‘jolly bad fellow’ that swam uncontrollably in the ocean of corruption, the likes of Nyame who held public office and misbehaved must be made to bow to special tribunal, the type that President Muhammadu Buhari hurriedly discussed with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onoghen, in a meeting in Aso Rock Presidential Palace, as soon as he landed the country from Washington D.C. in early May 2018.
The establishment of special courts to try corruption cases is long overdue. Those who turned public offices into Bazaar, where they traded and squandered billions of tax payer’s money; those who led a company of rats must be dispensed with in the speedy court of justice to send a strong message to other ‘Ali Baba and the forty thieves’ within the political circles of Nigeria.
That is the way to go to flush corrupt characters down the drain of reckoning to access a progressive country in a record time.
It is heart-warming to recollect that the proposed special courts will possess the muscle to squeeze and seize cash and assets of Nigerians who cannot give satisfactory evidence on how they came about their wealth.
No corrupt person who stole from the collective patrimony of Nigerians should be allowed to enjoy their loots, while the masses that have been defrauded live in abject poverty.
As we wait anxiously for the launch of the anti-corruption tribunals we hope earnestly that it will not be bitten by the bug of highly centralized and sophisticated bureaucracy.
Finally, for Rev. Jolly Nyame he is the first looter to be sent to the bar of a prison wall since the Buhari war on corruption began in 2015, as a despicable example for corrupt practices!
