N322m FRAUD: Court re-arraigns Sen. Nwaoboshi

Mr Peter Nwaoboshi, senator representing Delta North on Friday was re-arraigned by the EFCC to answer charges on a N322 million fraud case.

Mr Nwaoboshi, however, got court’s favour to travel abroad amid his fraud charge.

Crack Reporters report that Justice C.J. Aneke of the Federal High Court in Lagos ordered the release of his passport for a trip to Indonesia.

Nwaoboshi, who was earlier charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on the fraud case, was re-arraigned on Friday before Justice Aneke, who took over the case from Justice Mohammed Idris recently promoted  to the Court of Appeal.

The EFCC, in the charges, claimed that Nwaoboshi and Golden Touch Construction Project Limited purchased a property known as Guinea House, Marine Road, Apapa, Lagos for N805m between May and June 2014.

EFCC stated that N322m out of the N805m, which Nwaoboshi and the firm paid for the property, was part of proceeds of “an unlawful act, to wit: fraud.”

Nwaoboshi and his co-defendants, Golden Touch Construction Project Limited and Suiming Electricals Limited, pleaded not guilty as equally restated in the first arraignment on April 25, 2018.

The senator’s wish was granted by the court after his defence counsel, Emmanuel Kachukwu (SAN), urged Justice Aneke to allow the defendant to continue with the bail earlier granted him by Justice Idris.

Kachukwu also urged the judge to order the release of his client’s passport to enable him travel to Indonesia on October 8 and return on October 19, 2018.

However, the judge said the passport should be returned to the court’s registrar by October 23.

The case was adjourned further till October 25.