N322m laundering charge: Nigerian Senator jailed

After defecting from PDP to APC in 2021 ostensibly for a safe haven, serving Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, is to spend the next seven years in jail for stealing N322 million public funds.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had slammed a money laundering charge against the lawmaker, Persecondnews reports.

The Appeal Court in Lagos on Friday convicted Nwaoboshi and his two companies of the N322 million money laundering charge.

A Federal High Court presided over by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, had on 18 June 2021, 2018 discharged and acquitted Senator Peter Nwaoboshi.

The lower court held that the EFCC could not prove the elements of the offences for which it charged the lawmaker.

Not satisfied, the EFCC appealed the judgment, urging it to set aside the verdict.

The appellate court, in its unanimous judgment, ruled that the defendant is guilty as charged.

The court also ordered that his two companies — Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd — should be wound up in line with the provisions of Section 22 of the Money Laundering Prohibitions Act 2021.

EFCC had arraigned Nwoboshi and his two companies over the acquisition of a property named Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa, Lagos, for N805 million.

Nwoboshi and his companies were arraigned in 2018 before Justice Mohammed Idris who was later elevated to the Court of Appeal.

Again they were re-arraigned before Justice Aneke on October 5, 2018.

The EFCC alleged that the defendants committed the offence between May and June 2014 in Lagos.

Part of the money paid to the vendor, precisely a sum of N322 million transferred by Suiming Electrical Ltd on behalf of Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd, was alleged to be proceeds of fraud.

Justice Aneke held that the prosecution failed to call important witnesses and tender concrete evidence to prove the elements of the offences for which it charged the defendants.

Justice Aneke said: “The evidence of PW2 proved that the third defendant obtained a loan of N1.2 billion from Zenith Bank for purchase of additional equipment and as the provision of working capital.

“It also proved that the loan of N1.2 billion together with interest of N24 million was properly granted to the third. Nothing else was proved by the complainant or prosecutor in this case ”

But the Appeal Court in its judgment gave teeth to the EFCC’s appeal, saying the judge erred in dismissing the charge against the respondents.

The prosecution has proved the ingredients of the offence and consequently, the defendants are guilty as charged, he said.