Money Laundering: Court Dismisses Charges Against Justice Ngwuta

Pat Stephen/

The Federal High Court today dismissed the corruption charges filed against a serving Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, by the federal government.

The Attorney General of the Federation had filed a 13-count charge of money laundering and passport fraud against Justice Ngwuta, following a raid on his house by the Department of State Service in October 2016.

Ruling on an application by him on Friday, the trial judge, Justice John Tsoho, dismissed all the charges against Justice Ngwuta.

Justice Tsoho anchored his ruling on an earlier judgment of the Court of Appeal, which held that the pre-conditions for instituting charges against a judicial officer were not met before charging Justice Ngwuta.

The judgment of the of the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal delivered on December 12, 2017, and which Justice Tsoho relied on, had dismissed the corruption charges instituted against a serving judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Hyeldzira Nganjiwa.

The appeal court had dismissed the charges instituted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against the Federal High Court judge on the basis that a serving judge could not be investigated or prosecuted without being first disciplined by the National Judicial Council.

Justice Ngwuta, through his counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), submitted that by virtue of the said Court of Appeal’s judgment in Nganjiwa’s case and the provisions of section 158(1), Paragraph 21(8) of the Third Schedule to the Constitution, the charges instituted against his client were incompetent.

He maintained that going by the judgment of the Court of Appeal, the complaints forming the basis of the charges instituted against him ought to have been referred to the NJC and allowed the NJC to discipline him before instituting the charges.