By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
The senator representing Delta North Senatorial District, Senator Peter Nwoboshi was on Friday, June 18, discharged and acquitted by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos from allegation of laundering N322 million.
The trial judge, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke while delivering judgement on the matter, held that the case of the prosecution collapsed when it failed to call vital witnesses and lead concrete evidence to prove and establish its allegations.
Senator Nwaoboshi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was arraigned in 2018 by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on two counts of money laundering.
Also charged were two companies namely: Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail.
The trial commenced before Justice Mohammed Idris on April 25, 2015, but following the elevation of Idris to the Court of Appeal in June 2018, the case began afresh on October 5, 2018, before Justice Aneke.
According to the charge, Nwaoboshi allegedly committed the offences between May and June 2014, in Lagos.
He was alleged to have acquired a property described as Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa Lagos, for the sum of N805million.
The prosecution argued that he reasonably ought to have known that N322million out of the purchase sum formed part of proceeds of an unlawful act, adding that the sum was said to have been transferred to the vendors by order of Suiming Electrical Ltd.
The prosecution filed its written addresses on January 21, 2021, while the defendants filed their written addresses on February 3 and 9, 2021 respectively.
Delivering judgement on Friday, Justice Aneke first, readout counts of the charge for which the defendants were charged, and then reviewed the evidence as tendered by witnesses, as well as evaluated essential ingredients of the counts.
The court held that the evidence led by PW1, Prince Kpokpogri was based on a call from an anonymous caller, adding that he did not tender the documents supplied to him by the said anonymous who was also never called as a witness to testify.
The court held that the evidence of the first prosecution witness could therefore only qualify as hearsay
“Pw 2, Abubakar works with Nexim bank and the summary of his evidence was that the sum of N1.2 billion was granted to the third defendant on his application for a period of five years with interest.
“That the capital which is N1.2 billion has been re-payed, while over N700 million interest has been paid and that only about N24 million is outstanding on the said loan.
“He said that at the time of his testimony the tenure of the loan had not expired; the conclusion of his evidence was that the loan was regularly and properly granted to the defendant; he tendered exhibit A1 to A 27,” Justice Aneke reviewed.
The court held that the evidence of PW 2 has a high probative value.
Besides, Aneke held that PW 3 one Eyitayo Moigbemtere who sought to tender a computer-generated statement of account, was rejected on grounds that it did not comply with Section 84 of the Evidence Act.
He said that the court also rejected the admissibility of the account opening document of the third defendant which was sought to be tendered by PW 3.
The court held that although the evidence of PW3 was not controverted, the inadmissibility of the account opening document makes it impossible for the charge to be proved.
“PW 4, Mc Davies Stanley, an investigating officer with the EFCC, investigated the case on receipt of a petition written by PW1. All he did was write a letter to several organisations and agencies and on getting their responses, he analysed them and wrote a report which he submitted to the legal department of the EFCC.
“He tendered some of the responses he received as exhibit E, E1, F, F1, G and H,” the judge said.
The court held that exhibit G which is the extra Judicial statement of the first defendant is useless and cannot be tendered as evidence before the court.
“In criminal law, an extra Judicial statement of a person charged with a crime can be used as a confession, if he agrees that he committed the crime or for impeaching his credit. An extra Judicial statement which does not amount to a confession can never be regarded as evidence of a person charged with a crime,” the judge said.
The court held that apart from the first element of the offence charged in count one which has not been proved, that is, that the first and second defendants acquired Guinea House Marine Road Apapa Lagos, none of the other ingredients has been proved.
“How can they be proved when the statement of account of the third defendant with Zenith bank was tendered and. rejected in evidence,” the court queried.
The court held that a rejection of the said statement of account means that the said N322 million can not be proved coupled with the fact that the bank was not called as a witness.
Besides the court held that it is the statement of account of the third defendant that will show that apart from the loan of N1.2bilion from Nexim bank, there is no other money or sufficient money in the account of the third defendant to pay the sum of N322 million and thereby proving that the sum of N322 million was paid from N1.2 billion and not from any other money belonging to the third defendant.
Justice Aneke consequently, held that none of the elements of count one has been proved adding that this failure collapsed the case of the prosecution.
“In count two, the ingredients of count one must first be proved before the defendant can be found guilty. The result is that the prosecution’s case is dismissed and all the defendants are discharged and acquitted,” the court held.
During the trial, the prosecution called four witnesses whereas the defence called no witnesses but rather rested its case on that of the prosecution.
