Senator Peter Nwaoboshi representing Delta North Senatorial District at the Senate who has been on the run after he was convicted and sentenced to seven years imprisonment over seven months for N805 million has been arrested and remanded at the Ikoyi Custodial Center to commence his prison term.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, made this disclosure in a statement signed by its Head, Media and Publicity, Wilson Uwujaren. He said the lawmaker was intercepted by EFCC operatives at a hospital in Lagos on Monday, February 6, 2023.
The Appellate Court, on July 1, 2022, sentenced Nwaoboshi to prison after it convicted him of two counts of money laundering.
It also ordered the winding up of his two firms, Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd, and Suiming Electrical Ltd, 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 judgment read 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 June 18, 2021, discharged and acquitted the lawmaker and his companies.
The Senator who had absented himself from the Senate for seven months and still taking his salaries and other entitlements. He was the Chairman, Senate Committee on NDDC, from where he entered into trouble.
Nwaoboshi, a three-time Senator of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, inexplicably defected to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Discover more from The Source
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
