IT is a matter of serious concern that the dimensions of criminality in the country keep burgeoning by the day. And it would appear that what the preponderance of some young men and women lack in terms of positive creativity and innovativeness is being compensated for, and sadly so, by their proclivity for diverse acts of criminality. The instant case is the zenith of betrayal and wickedness between two friends and co-workers. Sadiq Gadah’s inhuman treatment of his friend and office colleague, Bello Adamu, is indeed the height of treachery as he did not only orchestrate a scheme to swindle Adamu, he also arranged for his elimination in order to permanently obliterate any trace of his fraudulent action. The narrative is sordid. Adamu had reportedly approached Sadiq, a friend and co-worker at the Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KAEDC), to help him secure a high-paying job at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). The latter requested for N3 million and he was given but he did not deliver on his promise to secure the job for Adamu. Apparently, it got to a point where Adamu requested for a refund of his N3 million and pestered Sadiq over the issue since he could not perform as he had promised. However, rather than arrange to refund the money, Sadiq who most probably set out to defraud his friend in the first place, devised a scheme to get him killed, and he actually subjected his friend to a harrowing and painful death by dealing several blows to his head with a pestle.

Sadiq’s objective was to kill his friend and silence him forever before he could raise the scam in the office or elsewhere. Unfortunately, he achieved the first part of his goal. He killed his friend but he failed in the second part of the objective, which was to remove any trace of the scam which the bludgeoning of Adamu to death was meant to achieve. Sadiq is currently in police custody and helping the police to unravel the details of his dastardly and murderous action. He is reported to have confessed and acknowledged the consequences of his action. Apparently, a very criminally minded and thoughtless felon, Sadiq claimed he was ready to drink poison and die by suicide to save his family from the mess emanating from the chaos.

The police have said that Sadiq will be arraigned upon conclusion of a preliminary inquiry into the matter. We urge them to be painstaking in their investigation of the matter and ensure that the suspect is diligently prosecuted. And if found guilty, he should be handed the maximum sentence under the law. Beyond the imperative of meting out appropriate sanctions to the suspect is the socioeconomic posers his dastardly act raises. Sadiq, who is said to be a political influencer, who most probably must have pontificated on the importance of high moral values in political offices, has killed his friend in order to avoid paying a N3 million debt. How hypocritical can some people be? Again, his deplorable action shows the darkness of the human mind: people that are regarded as friends may be nurturing murderous thoughts towards those who consider them to be confidantes. Sad as the killing of Adamu is, it illustrates yet another layer of evil and sinister acts in this story. This man collected the money to help his friend secure a job in the FIRS and that can only mean that there is a job syndicate at the FIRS.

And had Sadiq truly got Adamu a job at the FIRS, there would have been no need to refund the N3 million, which was a bribe meant to facilitate the shady transaction. Meanwhile, both Adamu and Sadiq could be described as gainfully employed since they are on the payroll of KAEDC. Yet for some curious reasons, Adamu believed that being in the employ of the FIRS, a civil service entity, is better than his job with the KAEDC. And he was even willing to spend N3 million to get the job! If a person is willing to pay N3 million bribe to obtain employment in an agency of government in a country where the minimum wage is N30,000, it is an indication that the expected job at the FIRS would be so lucrative, possibly because money would be made beyond and outside of the expected official emoluments. This is a saddening commentary because it means that the seeds of official corruption and indiscipline are being unwittingly sown from the point of recruitment. For instance, those who pay through the nose to be recruited into federal agencies will have as their primary focus the recouping of their “investments” and they will pursue the attainment of this objective by breaching the laws. Again, those brought into government service through underhand dealings are unlikely to hold officials who collected money from them in high esteem, and such disposition has the potential to breed indiscipline and lawlessness in the civil service.

Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are reputed for performing below par, but how can they serve their expected functions well with people bribing and cheating their way into them? It should be noted that the fact that Sadiq did not succeed in the present case does not indicate that he had not succeeded in such ventures in the past, possibly working with certain criminals within the system. We believe that the active presence of unscrupulous insiders within the MDAs is real. After all, a suspect accused some officials of the Federal Character Commission of selling job vacancies to the highest bidders during a parliamentary inquest late last year and he even admitted to playing the role of go-between. Members of the public have yet to be apprised of the outcome of the inquest but there is hardly a smoke without fire.

Murder is not justified under any guise: the law should take its course in this case. Beyond that, the MDAs, which are always indicted by Auditor-General of the Federation’s reports for mindless sleaze, need to be purged of criminal and corruptive tendencies. Indeed, the focus of the anti-graft agencies and civil society organisations, etc, should be more on the activities of the civil servants who are known to be very corrupt and adept at covering their tracks. More attention and energy are being deployed to tackle corrupt politicians who are fewer in number than the civil servants who must necessarily connive with the politicians before they can succeed in pillaging the public resources. Yes, it is illegal and morally reprehensible to bribe or cheat one’s way into the government service and employment, but the idea of trying to engage in such deplorable act would not have been considered if the chance of success had been zero ab initio. Therefore, the system must strive harder to rein in the activities of unscrupulous civil servants. We also urge citizens who might have engaged in illegal transaction but find that they are in danger of the potential evil actions of the party they are dealing with to involve the security agencies in their matters. The objective is not just to retrieve or recoup the financial resources that may appear to be going down the drain but also to forestall the possibility of one party taking desperate and precipitate actions against the other while under pressure like Sadiq allegedly did to Adamu.

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