That crime and criminality is intertwined with humanity is no exaggeration. It is also true that we may never be able to eradicate the causes, scourge and the pains it leaves on its trail. The hope that someday misbegotten felons would seize to exist in our society is forlorn as long as we accommodate beaten, stealing and murder. We will be making fetish of the facts if we do not belief that not all monsters are born and that many are made worse by their environments on their roads to evil.
Crime and its cruelty in any form is one of mankind’s unresolved puzzles for peaceful cohabitation and blissful ecstasy of life. The only way to soften the pangs of criminality and crime is to mete out adequate punishment due to an offender or violator of the law to the satisfaction of the victim. No victim of crime will be happy seeing his abuser or the killer of his breadwinner working free in the streets why bearing the scars of his wicked criminal acts. He may resort to self-help and denounce Thomas Hobbes’ noble counsel in his work called the leviathan as explained in the social contract. And there is no way crime would not fester persistently except those who are involved in it are constantly punishment to serve as deterrent to others.
This is where the sentencing of Kelvin Igha-Ighodalo suffice; the hardened criminal who stole the phone of the State of Osun’s Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on the day he was inaugurated as governor. He didn’t just steal the phone to impersonate the Governor, but he cloned the phone and the line to mimic the exact voice of the governor in order to dupe everyone that is associated with him. That way, whoever Kelvin called with the line will never differentiate between his voice and that of Rauf Aregbesola.
It shows how scientific the dude has been with criminality. When you clone a phone, you illegally make an electronic copy of stored information from a person’s credit card or mobile/cellphone so that you can make payments or phone calls but the owner of the card or phone receives the bill.
I almost feel for the bait when on December 14, 2011 Mr. kelvin, impersonating Governor Rauf called me up around 3:30am to make payment of N250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand Naira) only into an Intercontinental Bank with account number – 1028222882, domiciled at Ikotu, Lagos, opposite Ikotu police station. He claimed that one of his friends is stranded in Lokoja and that he is out of the country. He promised to pay back the money and even add to it as soon as he returns to Nigeria. After assuring the person whose voice sounded like that of the Governor’s on the other end of the telephone, I promptly texted the Governor with his other line that I have, assuring him that i will make the payment around 9:30am.
Then the shocker! The Governor informed me that he is out of the country and that both the phone and the line was stolen on November 27, 2010, the day of his swearing-in as Governor. What shocked me most was that Kelvin knew what country the Governor has traveled to. Then I began to suspect that the security apparatus around the Governor may have been badly compromised. I proceeded to incident the case at the State Police Headquarters, Benin City, as he instructed and the case was investigated by one Inspector Osita Samuel and Corporal McAnthony Ikhifa.
The two police officers and the bank officials did what they have to do and I paid in the money at the Mission Road branch of the Intercontinental Bank, Benin City. The suspect, as it were, was arrested at the Ikotun branch of Intercontinental Bank, opposite Ikotun police station under Area “M”, Idumu Lagos on the 19th of December, 2011. He was detained there to await the arrival of Inspector Osita Corporal McAnthony who had journeyed all through the night to bring the suspect to Edo State. Surprisingly, Kelvin – being an ex-police officer – connived with the other police officers on duty and escaped from the cell that same night before the team from Edo State arrived the station! The incident duty officer, Supol Henry Olonoyo and others on duty that night were detained for several weeks for their negligence or connivance with the suspect.
After a short while, luck ran out of him and he was rearrested so as to face the charges due to his offences. So, let’s not allow ourselves to be detained by unproductive emotions or blatant hatred for the thieving ruling class to becloud our logical sense of reasoning. A second or third time offender is almost always going to remain a habitual criminal. Kelvin, from the investigation carried out by the State Security Services and presented to the court shows that he is a dismissed police officer who has earlier on been in prison for 6 years for a charge of murder and subsequently served prison terms for receiving stolen good in 2010.
I find it absolutely disheartening to read comments from Nigerians making a case for a purposeful criminal on account of being sentenced to 10-year imprisonment as out of order. Granted that the punishment meted out on the ruling corrupt political class belied their offences – as the case of the pension thief convict, John Yakubu Yusuf – who was handed two years imprisonment for stealing N2 billion with an option of a N750,000 fine – which is incumbent on the judiciary to balance the act of equitable justice. Does that excuse a serial and compulsive criminal from spending 10 years in prison conferment?
The questions should be: is the Ministry of Interior which oversees the Nigerian Prison ready to reform itself and the inmates whose numbers crease on a daily bases? How prepared is the Nigerian Prison Authority towards the reformation of the inmates and their well-being so as to turn a new leave on leaving the prison? What modality is the Prison Authority working on towards ensuring that those who serve out their prison terms did not return to crime?
The judiciary, for once, should be applauded for the conviction of that felon by an Osogbo Hight Court for his criminal act, presided over by Justice Oyejide Falola. The learned Judge while sentencing Kelvin exercise his discretion within the limited space allowed by law to sentence him to 10 years term on each of the 3 counts instead of 20 years and 5 years on each the last 3 counts instead of 7 years or 14 years. This is because the convict had pleaded guilty and the court has accepted that facts as presented by the prosecution.
The convict committed an offence contrary to section 8 (c) and is punishable under section 1 (3) of the Advance Free Fraud and other related offences Act, 2006. The adjudication of justice in this case is not at the instance of the State of Osun’s Governor, rather, it is a product of the conscious efforts of Labour and Civil Society groups that have been advocating for speeding dispensation of justice which the National Judicial Council, NJC has keyed into.
After all the Holy Book also admonished in the Book of Ecclesiastes thus: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil”. The ball is in the court of the NJC to embark on altruistic reform of the Nigeria Judicial System for smooth and quick dispensation of justice. •Ikhide lives in Lagos..
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