Judge clears Peter Nwaoboshi of N322m fraud charge, accuses EFCC of bungling case

A federal high court in Lagos has discharged Peter Nwaoboshi, senator representing Delta north, of money laundering charge filed against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The EFCC arraigned Nwaoboshi and his two firms – Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd —  in 2018 before Mohammed Idris, a judge, who was later elevated to the court of appeal.

They were then re-arraigned before Chukwujekwu Aneke on October 5, 2018.

In the two-count charge marked FHC/L/117C/18, the EFCC alleged that the defendants laundered N322 million between May and June 2014, in Lagos.

According to the EFCC, Nwaoboshi was said to have acquired a property described as Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa Lagos, for the sum of N805 million.

The prosecution said he reasonably ought to have known that N322 million 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.

However, in the judgment delivered on Friday, Aneke held that the agency failed to prove the elements of the offences for which it charged the senator.

She held that the prosecution’s case collapsed because “bank officials were not called to testify”.

The judge also discharged the companies on the same ground.