Federal High Court in Lagos state has dismissed N322million money laundering charges filed by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Peter Nwaoboshi, a senator representing Delta North in the 9th Assembly.
The judge, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, held on Friday that EFCC failed to prove the elements of the offences for which it charged Nwaoboshi.
Aneke also discharged Nwaoboshi’s two companies – Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd – on the same ground.
Aneke said the case against the lawmaker did not stand because the anti-graft agency failed to produce the principal witnesses that would have aided EFCC’s case against him.
“Bank officials were not called to testify,” Aneke said, explaining one of the reasons the prosecution’s case collapsed.
In suit number FHC/L/117C/18, the EFCC filed a two-count charge against Nwaoboshi and his two firms for committing a N322 fraud between May and June 2014.
The defendants were first arraigned in 2018 before Mohammed Idris, a Judge of the High Court who is now at the court of Appeal. They were re-arraigned on October 5, 2018 before Aneke.
The anti-graft agency said Nwaoboshi acquired a property described as Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa Lagos, for the sum of N805million.
EFCC claimed that N322 million out of the N805 million, which Nwaoboshi and the firm paid for the property, was part of proceeds of “an unlawful act, to wit: fraud.”
The agency alleged that the N322 million was transferred to the vendor of the property on the order of Suiming Electricals Limited.
However, giving the judgement on Friday, Aneke discharged Nwaoboshi and his firms of the charges against him.
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