Lukman Olabiyi

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC ), on Wednesday, opened its case against Sen. Peter Nwaoboshi before the Federal High Court, Lagos.

Nwaoboshi, a Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) senator representing Delta-North at the Upper Chamber, was arraigned alongside two firms – Golden Touch Construction Project Limited and Suiming Electricals Limited before the court on a two -count charge by EFCC.

Count one of the charge accused the senator and Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd of fraudulently acquiring a property known as Guinea House situated at Marine Road, Apapa in Lagos, between May and June 2014, at a cost N805 million.

The charge stated that the defendants ought to have known that N322 million out of the purchase price formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act under the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

Count two of the charge accused Suiming Electricals of aiding Mr Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch Construction Projects Ltd to commit money laundering.

The accused persons had pleaded not guilty to the charge.

At the opening of its case against the accused persons on Wednesday, EFCC called two witnesses to testified against them before Justice Mohammed Idris.

Prince Kpokpogiri was the prosecution’s first prosecution witness, gave account of the role he played that led to the prosecution of Sen. Nwaoboshi and others.

Kpokpogiri  affirmed that he was the one who wrote petition to EFCC against the accused, disclosed that his action was as a result of an anonymous call and some documents he received at his office in Asaba, Delta State.

He said based on his petition, he was subsequently invited by the EFCC to Abuja to come and adopt the petition.

The witness said he runs a nongovernmental organisation, Anti-Corruption and Integrity Forum, as well as a real estate firm, P.K Aro Multiservices Nigeria Limited.

Under cross examination by the accused’s counsel, Anthony Idigbe (SAN), the witness said his petition did not contain a list of his firm’s Board of Directors because it was not mandatory.

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He also said it was not his duty to investigate the contents of his petition before forwarding to the EFCC.

“I only investigated by going through the documents. I did not contact the defendants because it is the work of the EFCC.”

The second prosecution witness, Murtala Abubakar who is a banker with  Nigerian Export Import Bank,  in his testimony revealed that Suiming Electricals Limited, the third defendant, applied for a loan from his bank in December 2013, and it was approved in April 2014.

Mr. Abubakar who is the head of Enterprise Risk Management unit at the bank, saiD Nwaoboshi was a former board member of the bank.

He also said that while the meeting to take a decision on the loan request was being held, Mr. Nwaoboshi indicated his interest in the transaction and was recused from the deliberation.

The senator is a director at Bildeberg, a holding company which has the majority shareholding in Suiming Electricals Nigeria Limited.

Mr. Abubakar said the EFCC made five requests to the bank on Suiming Electricals, starting from June 2017, in respect of the loan transaction granted to the company.

He further stated that the company met all the bank’s conditions before the loan was disbursed.

The witness said although the third defendant had repaid over ₦1 billion of the loan, it is still a non-performing one.

“The loan facility is for five years,” Mr Abubakar said.

“There is a difference between paying and performing. When we give a loan, we give you a payment plan. When you are supposed to be paying ₦1 million quarterly but you are paying ₦200,000, you are paying but you are not performing.”

The EFCC requested for an adjournment to enable it assemble its remaining four witnesses and the judge fixed July 2nd and 3rd for continuation of trial.