An anti-corruption group, which comprises indigenes and residents of Oyo State, Oyo Coalition Against Corruption (OCACO) has urged the judiciary and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to expedite the trial of former governor of the state, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, in the ongoing corruption trial against the Accord Party chieftain.
It made this known in a release issued by its Chairman and Secretary respectively, Comrades Adeyemi Ogunlana and Opeyemi Ishola in Ibadan at the weekend.
Senator Ladoja is currently undergoing trial for allegedly corruptively enriching himself and his family members in the sales of shares belonging to Oyo State totaling N6billion.
The group, which said the delay was affecting an upswing in the development of the state, said the delay in trial, which had gone on for close to seven years now, was no longer in the interest of justice and the people of the state.
“The lower court ruled that the former governor had a case to answer on the matter and he headed for the Appeal Court. Since then, it has been stalled somehow and we are hearing rumours that the former governor is seeking to plea-bargain. This is unacceptable to us and the people of the state,” the group said.
According to OCACO, the call became necessary going by insinuations in certain quarters that the former governor had returned sizeable portion of the said sum and was seeking to do a plea bargain on the ongoing corruption trial.
While urging a quick judicial resolution of the case which they said they were optimistic would be in the favour of the long-suffering people of Oyo State, OCACO also said that this would accelerate development in the state and stem the pervasive system of impunity and corruption that characterized successive governments in the state.
The group said that it gave kudos to the spate of developments currently going on in the state such as massive road dualizations, road construction, construction of the Mokola flyover and neighbourhood markets under the current dispensation in the state but said that if the sum of N6 billion taken from the state purse was re-injected into the economy of the state, it would accelerate the pace of development.
“The slow pace of justice is not desirable to us as people of Oyo State. First, it promotes charlatanism as people who ought to have been jailed have suddenly turned around to become those accusing others of corruption. The resolution of the case would make the world see the prisoners who are strutting about free and who still have the audacity to talk in self-righteousness among decent people,” said the group.
The group said that even though the law states that an accused is assumed innocent until proven guilty, the moral question makes it incumbent on the same accused to steer clear of moralizing or self-righteousness until the judge pronounces the final judgment.
“It is only here in Nigeria where an accused who is on bail will mount the rostrum and the same people whose heritage he is accused of siphoning will listen to and hail him. In developed democracies, such accused lie low and strive to ensure that dispensation of justice is prompt and immediate. It is not so in the Ladoja case. It is close to seven years now since the trial began. The accused who is on bail is not showing any signs of remorse and our collective patrimony, a whooping sum of N6 billion, is at stake,” said the group.
OCACO said that the delay in the trial was also sending wrong signals to current and future holders of political offices as it tends to signify that if one is standing trial for corruption while on bail, the accused could still present him or herself as self-righteous.
“From information that is in the public domain, we have the personal handwriting of some people who shared our collective patrimony among their wives, concubines and hangers-on. The combine of the judiciary and EFCC should let us know if this claim is spurious by a quick resolution of the case. If this is not done, we may be forced to take our fates as a people in our own hands. We cannot afford to let this matter be swept under the carpet as it is usually done among allegedly corrupt people in Nigeria," OCACO said.
