Fg Amends Charges Against Supreme Court Justice Sylvester Ngwuta
BEVERLY HILLS, November 16, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government has amended the charges it preferred against Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, Justice of the Supreme Court, raising fresh allegations of money laundering charges involving N505m against him.
The federal government had recently filed a charges of money laundering and corruption against the 65-year-old judge who is currently on suspension, but with the amendment, with case number FHC/ABJ/CR/232/2016, filed before the Federal High Court in Abuja, the charges against the judge have been increased from 10 to 14.
The Office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation which filed the amended charges on Wednesday , alleged that the offences contained in the first four counts of the amended charges were contrary to Section 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2012 (as amended).
Ngwuta was accused of transferring the total sum of N505m “denominated in naira and US dollars” to a building contractor between January and May 2016.
He allegedly transferred the total sum of N130m to Nwamba Linus Chukwuebuka, a building contractor, on January 4, 2016; the sum of N165m to Chukwuebuka on or about April 2016; and another sum of N100m to Chukwuebuka on or about April 2016; and the sum of N110m to the same person on or about May, 2016.
As alleged in the old set of charges, Ngwuta was also accused, in the amended charges, of retaining N35,358,000; $319,596 and £25,915 during the raid on his house by the operatives of the Department of State Services between October 7 and 8 while the various sums of money were described as proceeds of “an unlawful activity”.
He was also accused of 'knowingly making a false statement to the Passport Office concerning his date of birth for the purpose of procuring an additional diplomatic passport' for himself in violation of Section 10 (1) (c) of the Immigration Act and submitting multiple application forms to one or more passport offices 'with the intention of obtaining multiple diplomatic passports' for himself in violation of Section 10 (1) (d) of the Immigration Act 2015 and punishable under Section 10 (1) of the same Act.
Story by Oputah David