By Dare Akogun
The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal has sentenced a serving Senator, Peter Nwaoboshi, to seven years in prison for money laundering.Nwaoboshi represents Delta North in the Senate.The Economic and Financial Commission (EFCC) announced the development on its official Twitter handle on Friday.The anti-graft agency also said the court ordered that Nwaoboshi’s two companies, Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd, be wound up in line with the provisions of Section 22 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 202.The EFCC said, “The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal today, July 1, 2022, convicted and sentenced Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, senator representing Delta North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, to 7 years imprisonment and ordered that his two companies, Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd, be wound up in line with the provisions of Section 22 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2021.”The judgement, according to the EFCC, was a result of the success of the appeal against the decision of Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court, which on June 18, 2021, discharged and acquitted the defendants of a two-count charge of fraud and money laundering.Aneke, in the June 2021 judgment, also dismissed the fraud and money laundering charges against Nwaobowshi.The judge said the EFCC failed to prove the elements of the offenses for which it charged the lawmaker.The lawmaker and his two companies were subsequently discharged and acquitted before the EFCC appealed the judgement, which led to the conviction by the Court of Appeal on Friday.Nwaoboshi was arraigned alongside Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd before a Lagos Division of the Federal High Court in 2018 over N322 million fraud and money laundering charges..The EFCC, in suit number FHC/L/117C/18, accused the three defendants of fraudulently acquiring a property named Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa, Lagos.Ruling on the EFCC’s appeal on Friday, the Court of Appeal held that the trial judge erred in dismissing the charges against the respondents.The appellate court held that the prosecution had proved the ingredients of the offence and consequently found the defendants guilty as charged.
