N322m Fraud: Nigerian Senator Bags Seven Years Jail Terms

The rulling All Progressives Congress (APC) Senator from Delta State, Peter Nwaoboshi, has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment by an appeal court in Lagos State for money laundering.

The court also ordered the lawmaker’s two companies Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd to be wound up.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Nwaoboshi and his two firms before Justice Mohammed Idris in 2018.

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They were then re-arraigned before Chukwujekwu Aneke on October 5, 2018.

A sum of N322 million, part of the payment and suspected to be part of proceeds of fraud, was allegedly transferred by Suiming Electrical Ltd on behalf of Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd.

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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.

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Dissatisfied 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.

Nwaoboshi was elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and later defected to APC.