Senator Peter Nwaoboshi has been discharged of the N322 million money laundering charge brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Nwaoboshi, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was discharged on Friday by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, on the ground that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the Senator.
According to the trial judge, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke, the EFCC failed to prove the elements of the offences for which it charged the lawmaker.
The judge also discharged Nwaoboshi’s two firms – Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd – on the same ground.
The Delta North Senator and his firms were arraigned in 2018 before Justice Mohammed Idris who was later elevated to the Court of Appeal. They were then re-arraigned before Justice Aneke on October 5, 2018.
The EFCC, in the two-count charge marked FHC/L/117C/18., had alleged that the defendants committed the offence between May and June 2014, in Lagos.
Nwaoboshi was said to have acquired a property described as Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa Lagos, for the sum of N805million.
According to the prosecution, he reasonably ought to have known that N322million 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, with the EFCC alleging that Suiming Electrical, on May 14, 2014, aided Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch to commit money laundering.
Justice Aneke, in his judgement, held, among others, that the prosecution’s case collapsed because “bank officials were not called to testify.”
