TheCable

Peter Nwaoboshi, senator representing Delta north district, is now in prison custody.

Disclosing this in a statement on Wednesday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said Nwaoboshi was intercepted by its operatives on February 6.

The EFCC had arraigned Nwaoboshi and his two firms – Golden Touch Construction Project Ltd and Suiming Electrical Ltd — in 2018 before Mohammed Idris, a judge who was later elevated to the court of appeal.

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

In the two-count charge marked FHC/L/117C/18, the EFCC alleged that the defendants laundered N322 million in 2014.

While dismissing the case, Aneke had said the anti-graft agency failed to prove the elements of the offences for which it charged the senator.

However, EFCC had appealed the judgment and the senator was sentenced to seven years prison in July 2022.

According to the EFCC, the senator was not in court during sentencing, but went underground and refused to present himself to the Nigerian Correctional Service.

However, Nwaoboshi subsequently lodged an appeal before the supreme court, asking the apex court to grant him bail pending the determination of his appeal.

The EFCC said in a unanimous decision on January 27, 2023, the apex court dismissed the application and questioned why Nwaoboshi would file the suit while on the run.

“The Senator representing Delta North in the National Assembly, Peter Nwaoboshi, who has been on the run months after the Court of Appeal Lagos Division convicted and sentenced him to 7 years imprisonment for money laundering, is finally in prison custody,” the EFCC said.

“The lawmaker who was intercepted by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, at a Hospital in Lagos on Monday, February 6, was finally remanded in Ikoyi Custodial Centre today, February 8, 2023, to commence his prison term.”