BY Fredrick Nwabufo
The appeal court on Wednesday overturned the judgment of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) convicting Godsday Orubebe, former minister of Niger Delta affairs, of false declaration of asset.
On October 4, 2016, Danladi Umar, chairman of the CCT, convicted Orubebe for allegedly failing to declare plot 2057, Asokoro, Abuja.
The government filed a one-count charge of false asset declaration against him.
The former minister had told the tribunal that property was no longer his as of the time he went into public service.
He said he had sold the property to his creditor; hence he saw no need to declare what was not his.
But the tribunal convicted him on the premise that the title deeds of the property still bore his name.
However, a three-man panel of judges of the appeal court led by Mohammed Abdul Aboki on Wednesday voided the conviction, describing it as a miscarriage of justice.
The court held that it was clear that Orubebe sold the property even if the title deeds still had his name on them; hence there was no need for him to declare it.
The court also discharged and acquitted him of the charge.
Orubebe came into “national reckoning” when he tried to disrupt the collation of the 2015 presidential election results in Abuja.
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