The senator representing Delta North in the National
Assembly, Peter Nwaoboshi, who has been on the run months after the Court of
Appeal, Lagos Division convicted and sentenced him to seven years imprisonment
for money laundering, is finally in prison custody.
The lawmaker, who was intercepted by operatives of the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, at a Hospital in Lagos on Monday,
February 6, was remanded in Ikoyi Custodial Centre on Wednesday, February 8,
2023, to commence his prison term.
The EFCC disclosed this in a statement on its website on
Wednesday.
The Court of Appeal had in a
judgement delivered on July 1, 2022, sentenced Nwaoboshi to prison after it
convicted him of a two-count of money laundering and also ordered the winding
up of his two companies, Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming
Electrical Ltd, in line with the provision of Section 22 of the Money
Laundering Prohibition Act 2021, and their properties forfeited to the Federal
Government.
But the lawmaker who was not present in court at the time of
the ruling went underground and refused to present himself to the Nigerian
Correctional Service.
Instead, he proceeded to the Supreme Court, praying the apex
court to not only set it aside the judgment of the appeal court but grant him
bail, pending the determination of his appeal.
But in a unanimous decision on January 27, 2023, the apex
court dismissed the application. In the lead judgement by Justice Emmanuel
Agim, the apex court wondered why Nwaoboshi, who refused to submit himself to
the law, would seek the indulgence of the law.
Justice Tijani Abubakar, in his contribution, upbraided the
appellant for filing the bail application while on the run.
“We must make it very, very clear to all Nigerians that
nobody is above the law. The government and the governed are subject to the
rule of law. And, we must ensure that there is respect for the rule of law”.
The judge said.
The Court of Appeal judgement that convicted Nwaoboshi
followed an appeal by the EFCC against the judgment of Justice Chukwujekwu
Aneke of a Federal High Court in Lagos, which had on June 18, 2021, discharged
and acquitted the lawmaker and his companies.
Nwaoboshi and his companies illegally acquired a property
named Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa, Lagos, for N805 million. Part of the
money paid for the property was transferred by Suiming Electrical Ltd on behalf
of Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd. The funds are believed
to be proceeds of illicit activities of the convict.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Peter Nwaoboshi and
Golden Touch Construction Projects Limited, between May and June 2014, within
the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did acquire a property described as
Guinea House, Marina Road, Apapa, Lagos, for the sum of N805million, when you
reasonably ought to have known that the sum of N322 million out of the purchase
price transferred to the vendors by order of Suinming Electricals Limited
formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity of fraud and you thereby
committed an offence contrary to Section 15(2) (d) of the Money Laundering
Prohibition Act of 2011(as amended) and punishable under Section (15)(3) of the
same Act.”
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