Seven months after the Court of Appeal in Lagos sentenced him to seven years imprisonment for N805 million money laundering, the Senator representing Delta North, Peter Nwaoboshi was Wednesday remanded in the Ikoyi Custodial Centre to commence his prison term.
According to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nwaoboshi has been on the run since 1 July, last year .
According to a statement by the anti-graft agency’s Head of Media and Publicity, Mr Wilson Uwujaren said that the lawmaker was intercepted by EFCC operatives at a hospital in Lagos on Monday.
On 1 July, last year, the appellate court sentenced Nwaoboshi to prison having convicted him on a two-count charge of money laundering.
It also ordered the winding up of his two firms, Golden Touch Construction Project Limited and Suiming Electrical Limited, under Section 22 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2021, and their properties forfeited to the Federal Government.
Wilson said: “But the lawmaker who was not present in court at the time of the ruling, went underground and refused to present himself to the Nigerian Correctional Service.
“Instead, he proceeded to the Supreme Court, praying the apex court to not only set aside the judgment of the appeal court but grant him bail, pending the determination of his appeal.
”But in a unanimous decision on January 27, 2023, the apex court dismissed the application. In the lead judgement by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the apex court wondered why Nwaoboshi, who refused to submit himself to the law, would seek the indulgence of the law.
”Justice Tijani Abubakar, in his contribution, upbraided the Appellant for filing the bail application while on the run.
“We must make it very, very clear to all Nigerians that nobody is above the law. The government and the governed are subject to the rule of law. And, we must ensure that there is respect for the rule of law”.
The Court of Appeal judgment that convicted Nwaoboshi followed an appeal by the EFCC against the judgment of Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of a Federal High Court in Lagos, which had on 18 June 2021 discharged and acquitted the lawmaker and his companies.
Nwaoboshi and his companies were accused of illegally acquiring a property named Guinea House, Marine Road, Apapa, Lagos, for N805 million. Part of the money paid for the property was transferred by Suiming Electrical Limited on behalf of Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch Construction Project Limited. The funds are believed to be proceeds of illicit activities of the convict.
One of the counts reads: “That you, Peter Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch Construction Projects Limited, between May and June, 2014, did acquire a property described as Guinea House, Marina Road, Apapa, Lagos, for N805million, when you reasonably ought to have known that the sum of N322 million out of the purchase price transferred to the vendors by order of Suinming Electricals Limited formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful activity of fraud…”
