Witness narrates how Ex-HoS, allies diverted public funds to private companies in court
Senator Nwaobosh acquitted of N322m fraud charge
Modupe Shodeinde
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has discharged Senator Peter Nwaoboshi of the N322million money laundering charge filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Presiding over the court, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, on Friday said the commission did not prove elements of the offences for which it charged the lawmaker.
The court also discharged Nwaoboshi’s firms – Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd – on the same ground.
In 2018, the defendants were arraigned before Justice Mohammed Idris who was later elevated to the Court of Appeal.
They were then re-arraigned before Justice Aneke on October 5, 2018.
They were alleged to have committed the offence between May and June 2014, in Lagos.
Nwaoboshi was said to have acquired a property described as Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa Lagos, for the sum of N805million.
The prosecution said he reasonably ought to have known that N322million out of the purchase sum formed part of proceeds of an unlawful act.
The sum was said to have been transferred to the vendors by order of Suiming Electrical Ltd.
Suiming Electrical was alleged to have on May 14, 2014, aided Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch to commit money laundering.
According to Justice Aneke the prosecution’s case collapsed because they failed to call bank officials to testify.
