Delta Senator, Nwaoboshi Is Finally Behind Bars As A Result Of N805m Scam

After months of being on the run, Delta North’s senator in the National Assembly, Peter Nwaoboshi, who was found guilty of money laundering and given a 7-year prison sentence by the Court of Appeal Lagos Division, is now being held in a prison.  

The lawmaker who was accosted by EFCC agents at a hospital in Lagos on February 6 was finally remanded in Ikoyi Custodial Center today, February 8, 2023, to begin his prison term.

In a ruling issued on July 1, 2022, the Court of Appeal sentenced him to prison after finding him guilty on two counts of money laundering. The Court of Appeal also ordered the dissolution of his two businesses, Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd, in accordance with Section 22 of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2021, and the forfeiture of their assets to the Federal Government.

However, the lawmaker who was absent from the courtroom when the decision was made went into hiding and declined to show up at the Nigerian Correctional Service. Instead, he went to the Supreme Court, asking the apex court to not only overturn the appeal court’s decision but also to grant him bail while his appeal was being heard.

The apex court, however, dismissed the application on January 27, 2023, in a unanimous decision. The supreme court questioned why Nwaoboshi, who refused to submit to the law, would seek the law’s indulgence in the lead judgment by Justice Emmanuel Agim.

In his contribution, Justice Tijani Abubakar criticized the Appellant for submitting 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”.

After the EFCC appealed Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke’s ruling from the Federal High Court in Lagos, which had released and exonerated the lawmaker and his businesses on June 18, 2021, Nwaoboshi was found guilty by the Court of Appeals.

Nwaoboshi and his companies illegally acquired a property named Guinea House, Marine Road, in Apapa, Lagos, for N805 million. Part of the money paid for the property was transferred by Suiming Electrical Ltd on behalf of Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd. 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, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, did acquire a property described as Guinea  House,  Marina Road, Apapa,  Lagos, for the sum of 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 and you thereby committed an offence contrary  to Section 15(2) (d)  of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act  of 2011 (as amended) and punishable  under Section (15)(3) of the same Act.”