Senator representing Delta North District, Peter Nwaoboshi has vowed to challenge the judgment by the Court of Appeal which convicted and sentenced him to seven years in jail for money laundering.
Nwaoboshi, in a statement issued by his media office, said he will seek a redress of the court ruling at the Supreme Court, adding that he remains confident that the apex court would accordingly subject the judgment to critical review.
On Friday, the senator was convicted by the Lagos division of the appeal court. The court also ordered that the senator’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 2021.
Reacting to the development, Nwaoboshi who is the chairman of Senate Committee on Niger Delta Affairs said he will challenge the decision of the appeal court and pursue the decision of the Federal High Court which dismissed the money laundering allegations against him.
The statement entitled “COURT OF APPEAL JUDGMENT” read, “the attention of SPON Media has been drawn to the news making (doing the) rounds about the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos over a matter which EFCC filed against Chief, Senator Peter Nwaoboshi, the Senator representing Delta North at the Senate.
“It is not unusual to have judgments that astound the parties, depending on where the pendulum swings.
“The judgment, the news of which is in the media, arose from an appeal by EFCC against the judgment of the Federal High Court, Lagos, which discharged and acquitted Distinguished Senator & Co-Defendants at the trial level.”
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Nwaoboshi and his two firms – Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd — in 2018.
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.
However, in a judgment delivered in June 2021, Aneke held that the agency failed to prove the elements of the offences for which it charged the senator.
The judge also held that the prosecution’s case collapsed because “bank officials were not called to testify”.
Aneke also discharged the companies on the same grounds.
Not satisfied with the judgment, the anti-graft agency filed an appeal.
Delivering judgment on Friday, the appellate court overturned the lower court’s judgment and convicted the senator.
