SAN FRANCISCO, January 18, (THEWILL) – The Nigerian government has told an Abuja Federal High Court that it had evidence to prove its case of corrupt enrichment against a Supreme Court Justice, Sylvester Ngwuta, who it is prosecuting on 16 counts bordering on money laundering and others relating to fraudulent obtaining of multiple passports.
The Federal Government through its counsel, Mr. Charles Adeogun-Philips, made this claim in his opening remarks before calling the first prosecution witness on Wednesday.
Recall that Justice Ngwuta was among the judges whose homes were raided by the operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, on October 7, 2016. The security agency later said it, in the course of the raid, recovered large sums of money from Ngwuta’s house.
The Federal Government counsel, in his opening speech, disclosed that the case instituted against the apex court judge, “chronicles corrupt enrichment, violations of the money laundering laws of our land, passport fraud, and an attempt to obstruct justice by a judicial officer”.
He claimed that the defendant “controlled” over N500m between January and October 2016 when his total legitimate earnings, including his allowances, for the year was only about N24m.
Adeogun-Philips continued that from the N500m, Justice Ngwuta transferred dollar equivalent of N313m cash in $100 bills to a building contractor within the period of nine months spanning between January and September, 2016, to “develop several landed properties” for him.
He explained that earlier in 2015, the defendant, within a period of one month, made various cash payments totalling $180,000 to the building contractor.
The prosecutor also alleged that during the raid on the Justice’s Abuja residence by DSS operatives on October 7, 2016, total sums of N38.358m, $319,596 and £25,915 were found in his possession.
He said the Justice of the apex court has no satisfactory explanation for the huge sums of money he was found to have controlled within the year as it is in excess of his legitimate earning.
The presiding judge, Justice John Tsoho, has accepted written copy of the opening speech delivered by Adeogun-Philips.
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