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IN an interesting and utterly bewildering conclusion of justice, sacked former Inspector-General of Police, Mustafa  (Tafa) Adebayo Balogun regained his freedom on February  9, 2006 after serving six months less 67 days he spent in  detention in the confines of a beautiful, air-conditioned and well-equipped hospital, which served as his prison. Originally  sentenced to the Abuja (Kuje) Prison, the former IG somehow resurfaced at the Abuja National Hospital and was  hospitalised. This environ, admittedly, was a far cry, a completely odd world from his supposed prison lot and this is  what makes this case quite interesting. While his fellow convicts, his fellow criminals, rogues and rotten eggs of an equally  rotten society wasted in the horrid and abominable gaol of the Nigerian nation, Balogun rested comfortably in the Abuja  National Hospital under the pretense of recovering from an illness with the full compliments of room service, a television  set, well cooked meals, drinks, access to friends and visitors and the whole gamut. These privileges, it should be well-noted are all but alien to a vast majority of Nigerians (victims of Balogun’s crime and  greed) who live and breath in daily squalor; whose tents have since been pitched in the eternal and ignoble orbit  scantiness, privation and unmitigated paucity, no thanks to the present dispensation. Yet, Balogun, a prisoner of the  highest order, a certified felon to the tenth degree served his term in a condition most Nigerians would envy. It is, indeed,  a sad day when Nigerians envy the living conditions of a prisoner, a convicted felon and would prefer to exchange places  with that felon. It belies the warped judicial system that pervades the Nigerian landscape; it speaks volumes of our values  as a society and the apparent devaluation of the import of the supposed lessons of true incarceration. There could not be  a better definition of travesty of justice than in the case of Balogun who after doing the people of Nigeria to the  handsome tune of N17 billion, had a double on them by serving his term in the afore-described conditions. This seems to be the norm in today’s Nigeria where the well-placed, high-rolling and well-heeled politicians and  government officials after their so-called conviction are suddenly hospitalised for unknown ailment. It is a convenient way  to elude the cogent lessons of justice and circumvent the venal judicial system already in place. The ground is being  currently set for the disgraced former Bayelsa State governor, Mr. DSP Alamieyeseigha, to follow the same precepts  with his recent surgery in Lagos to ease the complication of the tummy tuck surgery he had in Germany before his arrest  by the London Metropolitan Police on charges of money laundering. It should therefore not come as a surprise that upon  his trial and conviction (if that be the case), the sequel of events will follow thus; the former oil governor would complain  of being ill; the nation would be told that he needs to be flown overseas for medical attention; as a compromise,he would  be hospitalised in Abuja or Lagos as he serves his prison term in the name of receiving first grade treatment not available  in the graveyards called prison. Then, there would be a mile-long explanation by the powers that be as to why the former  governor is serving his term in a hospital rather than in a prison. They would spin it from earth to the high heavens and  attempt to sway public opinion. But the fact remains that the jaundiced concepts of justice in Nigeria can never be  fulfilled as long as the authorities are party to this grand conspiracy to dupe and beguile the Nigerian polity. As long as they connive with the criminals, the  supposed war against corruption would remain a sheer pretension. In  any sane society, the threat of prison is meant to serve as a deterrent to the criminal minded, but when a convicted  criminal is sent to a country club such as the Abuja National Hospital to serve time, justice is invariably denied and  cheapened and the threat of deterrence grossly minimized.In sentencing the former IG, the presiding judge, Nyako,  stated that he got concurrent sentences on all counts because he was a first offender. Indeed, a first offender? One  cannot help but notice the glaring inconsistencies in the application of justice as a first-offending common criminal on the  street who steals a loaf of bread is given a sterner sentence, why then should Balogun be accorded such a light sentence  given the severity of his crimes? Where on God’s green planet would a high-ranking official on the level of an IG of  Police betray the trust of his country, his men (and women) in the police, abuse power, rig elections for his boss, the  President, steal and launder through many fictitious companies N17 billion meant for the upkeep of his men and the  Police Force in general and only be sentenced to six months in prison and fined N4 million?•Dr. Alalibo writes from Virginia, USA.